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SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 


WILLIAM  W.  GUTH, 

President  College  of 
the  Pacific. 


Faith  is  an  experiment  which 
ends  in  an  experience,— Inge. 


(Hmtmnatt : 
JENNINGS  AND   GRAHAM 

EATON  AND   MAINS. 


CO»TBIGHT,  1912,  BY 

Jennings  and  Gbaham, 


^g  Parents 

FROM  WHOM  I  RECEIVED 

MY 

FIRST  KNOWLEDGE 

OF 
SPIRITUAL  VALUES 


253807 


PKEFACE. 

The  real  values  of  life  are  spiritual. 
Every  age  seems  to  be  materialistic  in 
tendency.  But  this  is  an  indication  on  the 
surface  and  does  not  represent  the  deeper 
conditions  of  human  striving.  Each  era 
of  civilization  has  had  its  ebb  and  flow  of 
spiritual  endeavor.  But  there  have  always 
been  heroic  souls  in  every  step  of  progress 
who  stemmed  the  onrush  of  the  material- 
istic. The  flood-tide  of  faith  has  always 
returned.  On  this  tide  peoples  and  nations 
have  gone  forward. 

So  in  the  individual  life  there  is  the  fluc- 
tuation of  spiritual  desire  and  effort.  It 
would  seem  at  times  that  individual  men 
had  a  surfeit  of  spirituality  and  deliber- 
ately turned  to  the  materialistic.  But  the 
sea  of  faith  in  the  human  soul  does  not  go 
out  forever.  It  returns.  And  on  the  full 
ocean  of  the  spiritual  man  really  rides. 
5 


PEEFACE. 

As  each  age  has  its  great  soul  to  bring  men 
back  and  hold  them  to  faith,  so  each  in- 
dividual has  an  impulse  which  keeps  him 
in  the  stream  of  the  eternal.  In  the  strug- 
gles of  life  we  are  only  too  truly  brought 
in  touch  with  the  materialistic.  But  our 
calmer  moods  recall  and  establish  the  spir- 
itual. All  men  covet  inward  peace.  In 
this  desire  they  are  spiritual  far  more  than 
they  appreciate,  and  if  they  are  true  to 
their  religious  instincts,  they  actualize 
spirituality  even  in  their  unconscious 
yearning  for  the  good  and  abiding. 

Because  we  seem  to  be  hurried  on  in  the 
tide  of  the  materialistic  it  is  well  to  empha- 
size strongly  the  presence  and  the  impor- 
tance of  the  spiritual.  Any  serious  attempt 
to  do  this  ought  to  add  to  the  hope  and 
constancy  of  human  effort  to  realize  the 
worthy.  Young  men  and  women,  especially, 
should  have  the  deeper  aspects  of  life  con- 
tinually set  before  them.  They  are  inter- 
ested in  the  fundamental  truths.  Skep- 
ticism does  not  represent  their  real  attitude 
6 


PREFACE. 

to  things  eternal.  They  are  unwilling 
rather  than  intentional  doubters.  They  are 
often  indifferent,  it  is  true,  to  spiritual 
needs,  but  this  fact  is  not  so  discouraging 
as  it  appears.  They  recognize  that  the 
faith  of  the  fathers  is  still  a  living  faith, 
and  are  far  more  ready  to  accept  than  re- 
ject this  faith.  They  demand,  however, 
that  it  be  put  into  new  forms  and  be  in- 
terpreted in  terms  of  to-day. 

To  emphasize  the  vital  nature  of  the 
spiritual  is  the  purpose  of  the  following 
essays.  Stress  is  placed  in  each  essay 
upon  the  deeper  and  abiding  aspects  of  life. 
Further  than  in  this  stress  no  especial  con- 
secutiveness  of  thought  is  claimed  for  the 
essays.  They  are  published  with  the  hope 
of  adding  to  the  material  which  helps  to 
create  and  strengthen  faith. 

William  W.  Guth. 

San  JoaS,  Cai.,  January  21, 1912, 


CONTENTS. 

Page. 

I.  "Seek  Ye  My  Face,"   -        -        -  13 

II.  Giving  What  We  Have,    -        -  21 

III.  The  Perils  of  Popularity,          -  30 

IV.  Limiting  God,    -        -        -        -  42 
V.  Peace  Within,      -        -        -        -  52 

VI.  Transfiguration  and  Slumber,  64 

VII.  Honest  Differing,    -        -        -  77 

VIII.  Hiding  from  Jesus,       -        -        -  91 

IX.  In  Sight  of  the  Promised  Land,  104 

X.  Round-about  Ways  of  God,         -  115 

XI.  The  Widening  Universe,          -  127 

XII.  Evening  and  Morning,         -        -  141 

XIII.  Every  Man  to  His  Own  House,  155 

XIV.  The  Incarnation  of  Ideas,  -        -  170 
XV.  The  Touch  of  Faith,         -        -  187 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 


SEEK  YE  MY  FACE. 

'  *  Seek  ye  My  face. '  ^  The  Almighty  wrote 
this  invitation  on  every  page  of  Scripture. 
With  the  same  hand  He  penned  the  warn- 
ing, '*My  face  shall  not  be  seen,  for  there 
shall  no  man  see  Me  and  live. ' '  Here  we 
stand  before  a  puzzling  contradiction.  And 
we  find  no  solution  when  we  look  away 
from  God's  word  to  His  act.  Nature  in  all 
her  moods  cries  to  us,  **Seek  ye  my  face." 
We  confidently  accept  the  invitation,  and 
then  are  met  with  the  rebuff,  **My  face 
shall  not  be  seen." 

The  sun,  making  all  nature  laugh  and 
sing,  calls  out,  '^Come  to  see  me."  We  go 
to  the  door  and  knock.  A  defiance  is  hurled 
at  us  from  the  other  side,  **Go  away,  you 
can  not  see  me,  my  face  is  too  terrible  for 
your  eyes."  The  stars  twinkle,  and  each 
13 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 

laughingly  flaunts  the  challenge  down, 
*^Seek  ye  my  face.''  Out  into  space  we 
project  ourselves,  and  boldly  grasp  at  in- 
finitude. But  the  stars  mock  us.  **You 
may  measure  the  distance  by  which  we  are 
separated  from  you,  you  may  fix  the  time 
of  our  coming  and  going,  you  may  trace 
our  steps  as  we  run  through  space,  but  you 
can  never  know  us.^'  The  flower  smiles  at 
us  and  seems  to  be  saying,  **Seek  ye  my 
face."  We  respond;  and  then  it  coyly 
draws  a  veil  over  its  face  and  says,  *  *  Thou 
shalt  not  see  me."  We  pluck  it,  we  hold 
it  in  our  hand  or  under  the  microscope. 
But  it  defies  us.  **  You  may  tear  me  apart 
and  classify  me,  but  my  face  you  shall 
never  see." 

We  turn  to  truth.  Again  we  hear  the 
cry,  **Seek  ye  my  face,"  and  again  the 
veil  immediately  covers  truth.  We  pur- 
sue our  quest,  **a  thousand  glimpses  win," 
but  never  see  the  whole.  Oft  with  Pilate 
we  are  tempted  to  say,  **What  is  truth?" 
making  bold,  in  the  impatience  of  our  pes- 
14 


SEEK  YE  MY  FACE. 

simism,  to  suggest  that  there  is  no  truth; 
that  what  seems  to  be  truth  and  to  whose 
call  we  can  not  shut  our  souls,  is  nothing 
but  a  mirage.  And  yet  we  seek  on.  The 
forces  of  nature  blindfold  us.  Clasping 
hands  and  forming  a  circle,  as  in  the  play, 
they  enclose  us  within  and  call  out,  *  *  Truth 
is  there;  catch  and  hold  it."  So  we  cry, 
*  *  Truth,  where  art  thou  ? ' '  Truth  answers, 
**Here  I  am."  We  grope  about,  calling, 
** Where?  Where?"  Truth  answers  gayly, 
now  in  front,  now  at  our  side,  now  at  some 
distance  off,  now  in  our  very  ears,  *  *  Here, 
here!"  But  the  forces  of  nature  laugh  at 
our  antics  as  we  try  to  catch  and  hold 
truth,  and  free  ourselves  from  the  blind- 
fold. 

We  should  remain  in  hopeless  perplexity 
if  we  insisted  upon  our  quest.  We  go  back, 
rather,  to  the  psalmist  and  hear  his  state- 
ment further:  **When  Thou  saidst.  Seek 
ye  My  face ;  My  heart  said  unto  Thee,  Thy 
face.  Lord,  will  I  seek."  There  is  here 
no  indication  that  the  psalmist  expected 
15 


SPIEITUAL  VALUES. 

to  find  the  face  of  the  Lord,  and  no  thought 
that  he  would  be  disappointed  did  he  not 
find  it.  There  is  simply  the  response  of 
the  psalmist's  heart  to  the  command  of 
his  God.  His  life-given  task  is  to  seek, 
his  duty  obedience. 

Here  we  have  a  real  answer  to  the  many 
questions  we  are  continually  asking.  What 
is  life!  To  attain  to  a  certain  end,  or 
while  living,  to  live?  Lessing  has  a  bold 
word  when  he  says:  **If  Almighty  God 
should  come  to  me  and  with  outstretched 
hands  offer  me  in  His  right  hand  Truth 
as  a  perfected  and  finished  whole,  and  in 
His  left  hand  the  desire  after  truth  with 
the  condition  that  I  would  continually  be 
misled  in  my  search  for  it,  and  should  say 
to  me,  *  Choose  thou  between  these  two,' 
I  should  with  humility  fall  before  Him 
and,  reaching  toward  His  left  hand,  say, 
*  Father,  give  me  but  the  desire  for  truth; 
pure  truth  is  for  Thee  alone.'  "  On  to 
whatever  path  our  quest  may  lead  us,  the 
goal,  if  we  are  striving  to  live,  will  be 
16 


SEEK  YE  MY  FACE. 

truth.  But  it  is  not  truth  as  such,  to  quote 
Lessing  again,  which  any  man  possesses 
or  thinks  he  possesses  which  constitutes 
the  true  worth  of  a  man,  but  the  conscien- 
tious pains  he  puts  forth  to  get  behind  the 
truth.  So  it  is  not  life  which  any  one 
possesses  or  thinks  he  possesses  that  con- 
stitutes the  true  essence  of  joy,  but  the  real 
pains  one  puts  forth  in  his  desire  to  live. 
*  *  Seek  ye  My  face. ' '  The  heart  accepts 
the  invitation;  it  takes  up  the  task  of  liv- 
ing and  finds  the  delights  and  true  worth 
of  life.  It  is  when  the  head  comes  down 
and  says  to  the  heart,  *  *  0  you  foolish  little 
creature,  struggling  away  at  something 
you  can  never  attain  to,"  that  the  heart 
becomes  sick  and  faint  and  would  give  up. 
But  there  is  something  in  the  constitution 
of  the  heart  that  will  not  be  baffled ;  instead 
of  being  routed  by  the  head,  it  more  often 
comes  to  the  aid  of  the  head  and  helps  it 
over  many  a  difficulty.  As  we  often  see 
a  frail  woman  struggling  against  great 
odds  to  maintain  herself  and  her  little 
17 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 

ones,  lift  herself  up  triumphantly  and  suc- 
ceed simply  because  of  the  strength  that 
lies  at  the  very  soul  of  her  being,  so  do  we 
find  the  heart  breaking  through  all  ob- 
stacles, righteously  exultant,  saying,  **I 
will  seek,  for  by  seeking  I  shall  live.'^ 

Or,  to  change  the  figure :  The  little  tug- 
boat plying  the  harbor  receives  meekly  the 
taunts  of  the  ocean  liner  as  it  sails  in  from 
its  long  voyage  of  conquest  in  foreign 
waters.  **Get  out  of  my  way,  you  little 
boat!  I  sail  the  broad  ocean,  I  touch  at 
distant  shores,  the  whole  world  is  mine. 
What  do  you  know  about  life?  Cease 
pufiing  away  and  trying  to  be  pretentious." 
But  sometimes  it  happens  that  the  great 
hulk  of  fifteen  or  twenty  thousand  tons 
gets  stranded  or  is  thrown  upon  the  rocks ; 
and,  if  it  is  to  be  helped  at  all,  it  is  by 
the  little  tug  which  comes  alongside,  throws 
over  the  rope,  hitches  to,  and  pulls  it  out 
into  its  element  once  more.  So  the  head 
may  say  to  the  heart,  *  ^  I  sail  on  the  broad 
ocean  of  thought,  I  touch  at  all  the  foreign 
18 


SEEK  YE  MY  FACE. 

shores  of  knowledge,  you  know  nothing 
about  my  life,  get  out  of  my  way,  let  me 
have  full  and  free  scope. '^  But  does  the 
head  never  become  stranded,  is  it  never 
left  high  and  dry  on  the  rocks  or  in  the 
sand  until  the  little,  faithful,  plodding 
heart — the  heart  that  never  sails  the  ocean 
of  thought,  but  remains  at  home  attending 
to  the  commonplaces  of  life — comes  and 
pulls  it  out  into  sailing  water  again? 

To  the  heart  the  words,  **My  face  shall 
not  be  seen,"  have  no  meaning;  the  heart 
simply  goes  on  seeking  and  finding  God. 
To  the  mind  the  words,  ** Seek  ye  My  face," 
are  ever  puzzling,  because  the  face  seems 
always  to  be  hidden.  If  we  begin  the 
quest  for  God  with  the  heart  we  shall  be 
rewarded ;  if  we  begin  it  with  the  mind  God 
will  draw  a  veil  over  His  face.  This  is 
God's  way.  We  must  submit.  But  He 
has  not  left  or  ever  will  leave  us  comfort- 
less. **Seek  and  ye  shall  find,"  was  not 
a  vain  word  of  the  Master.  Following 
Him  we  look  into  the  inner  recesses  of  our 
19 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 

being,  and  observe  that  the  heart  life  is 
the  only  true  life.  By  no  means  do  we 
discard  the  mind.  We  use  it,  we  develop 
it  to  its  very  highest  capacity.  But  we  do 
not  try  to  divorce  it  from  the  heart.  What 
God  hath  joined  together  we  do  not  put 
asunder.  We  teach  mind  and  heart  to  live 
together  in  happy  unity,  and  find  the  es- 
sence of  life  not  in  perfect  knowledge,  but 
in  worthy  action. 


20 


n. 

GIVING  WHAT  WE  HAVE. 

The  lame  man  at  the  Gate  Beautiful  asked 
Peter  for  what  he  did  not  have.  Peter 
gave  him  what  he  had.  He  might  have 
walked  by,  saying,  **I  should  like  to  help 
the  poor  man,  but  I  have  nothing  to  give 
him. "  He  asked  himself,  *  *  How  can  I  help 
this  cripple  ? ' '  And  what  he  found  he  could 
give  was  more  than  what  he  had  been  asked 
for.  Thus  we  walk  by  the  gates  beautiful 
of  life  and  see  men  and  women  longing  to 
enter  in,  but  who  can  not  because  they  are 
crippled. 

Here  is  a  man  or  woman  with  a  narrow 
outlook  upon  life,  lacking  in  high  and  noble 
aspirations,  drawn  along  in  the  current  of 
the  commonplace  to  the  maelstrom  of  ob- 
livion. The  life  was  morally  or  intellectu- 
ally crippled  from  birth.  It  brought  with 
it  none  of  the  rich  endowments  of  a  parent- 
age so  essential  to  a  proper  start  in  life. 
21 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 

Tlie  home  surroundings  were  neitlier  in- 
spiring nor  elevating.  The  child  grew  up, 
walking  on  moral  or  intellectual  crutches. 
It  had  never  had  the  real  freedom  of  its 
limbs. 

We  are  not  to  think  of  such  an  one  as 
particularly  vicious  and  necessarily  a  can- 
didate for  the  workhouse.  There  are  many 
criminals  who  could  have  been  saved  had 
the  hand  of  sympathy  and  love  been 
reached  out  to  them  in  time  and  had  they 
been  bidden  to  rise  up  and  walk.  We  see 
such  before  us  every  day.  They  ask  too 
often  for  money.  Modem  society  is  obli- 
gated as  never  before  to  hear  their  cry. 
But  money  is  not  what  they  so  much  need. 
They  need  rather  to  be  lifted  to  their  feet 
and  given  a  chance  to  move  on  into  the 
temple  of  life.  The  rich,  red  blood  of  their 
infinite  and  hidden  capacities  must  be 
stirred  in  their  veins  and  set  to  flowing. 

Here  is  a  young  man  who  ought  to  have 
a  college  education.  He  has  hardly  had  a 
common  schooling.  While  he  has  a  certain 
22 


GIVING  WHAT  WE  HAVE. 

amount  of  ambition,  if  left  to  himself  lie 
will  aim  for  sometliing  lower  than  for 
that  he  is  capable  of.  His  parents  do 
not  appreciate  the  need  of  his  training. 
Even  if  they  did  they  would  not  have  the 
money  to  pay  for  his  education.  Neither 
have  we  any  money  to  give  him.  And  yet 
he  is  a  cripple  and  needs  onr  help.  What 
we  can  give  him  is  an  enthusiasm  for  learn- 
ing and  culture.  We  can  urge  him  to  read, 
we  can  open  up  the  stimulating  fountains 
of  literature,  we  can  bring  him  to  a  knowl- 
edge of  the  great  men  and  things  of  the 
past,  of  the  world  movements  of  the  pres- 
ent and  future.  We  can  make  his  latent 
powers  throb  and  pulsate,  and  in  so  doing 
enable  him  to  stand  upon  his  feet.  He  will 
then  proceed  to  earn  an  education.  Our 
one-candle  power,  all  we  had,  perhaps,  will 
have  become  a  searchlight  in  him,  sending 
out  its  white  pathways  over  every  range 
of  darkness. 

Or  here  is  another  whose  sense  of  the 
great  and  noble  in  life  is  not  developed. 
23 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 

From  birth  the  faculties  of  appreciation 
of  the  beautiful  and  good  have  been  allowed 
to  remain  inactive.  He  is  crippled.  An 
essential  part  of  his  organism  is  shriveled 
up  and  deadened.  And  nobody  is  deeply 
concerned  about  the  necessary  cure.  As 
the  lame  man  was  carried  every  day  to  the 
Beautiful  Gate  that  he  might  ask  for  alms 
when  he  needed  sound  limbs,  so  this  one 
is  offered  almost  everything  except  what  he 
needs.  We,  by  birth  and  training,  may- 
hap, have  the  stimulant  he  requires.  Our 
ideals  are  high ;  we  have  traveled,  perhaps, 
and  have  become  acquainted  with  peoples 
and  lands;  we  have  seen  the  greatest 
works  of  nature  and  art;  we  have  read 
widely,  cultivating  an  inborn  taste  for  the 
best  in  literature.  Or  we  may  have  never 
been  away  from  home  and  yet  have  de- 
veloped the  highest  and  deepest  instincts 
of  the  worth  of  man,  and  acquired  the 
ability  to  point  others  to  the  appreciation 
of  their  true  needs,  and  to  awaken  their 
sense  of  the  sublime  and  eternal.  What 
24 


GIVING  WHAT  WE  HAVE. 

we  thus  have  we  can  give  to  the  man  of  low 
ideals.  As  we  touch  the  springs  of  his 
life  the  channels  of  his  better  self  will  be- 
come filled,  an  infusion  of  power  will 
quicken  his  wasted  faculties,  he  will  be  able 
to  rise  and  stand  upon  his  feet  We  gave 
him  what  we  had  and  it  made  him  whole. 
A  love  of  flowers  or  birds  may  seem  a 
small  possession  to  the  busy  merchant  or 
professional  man.  And  yet  if  he  can  share 
his  enthusiasm  with  another,  wholly  lack- 
ing in  response  to  the  delights  of  nature, 
he  will  open  a  new  world  for  that  other. 
There  are  men  who  have  become  morally 
and  SBsthetically  crippled  as  they  have  pur- 
sued the  h^rd  game  of  life.  What  they 
need  is  not  what  they  ask  for — ^more  money 
and  power  in  business  life — ^but  a  touch  of 
nature,  an  idea  of  the  beautiful,  a  sound  of 
the  sublime.  Fields  and  flowers,  paintings 
and  statues,  the  voice  of  the  singer,  the 
combined  harmony  of  the  orchestra — ^these 
are  unknown  to  them.  The  very  best  side 
of  their  natures  is  shrunken  and  lifeless. 
25 


SPIEITUAL  VALUES. 

When  they  reach  out  their  hands  to  ns  for 
greater  business  opportunity,  larger  finan- 
cial gain,  we  do  not  have  it  to  give  them. 
What  we  have,  however,  we  need  not  hesi- 
tate to  bestow  J  nay,  it  is  our  duty  to  give. 
For  it  is  a  miracle  working  power,  it  will 
make  them  whole,  they  will  stand  on  their 
feet  and  shout  for  joy,  a  part  of  their  lives 
hitherto  unknown  to  them  will  have  been 
opened  up,  they  are  reborn. 

Or  we  have  faith  in  the  great  verities 
of  life.  Our  hopes  are  large,  our  spiritual 
reach  long.  We  have  the  faculty  for  be- 
lieving and  not  the  tendency  to  doubt.  We 
are  not  bothered  so  much  about  logic  when 
we  enter  the  religious  realm  as  about  life. 
We  accept  everything  that  makes  for  life, 
even  although  as  yet  we  are  not  able  to  re- 
solve it  in  the  crucible  of  thought.  We 
see  things  beyond  the  ordinary  range  of 
sight,  we  hear  voices  not  audible  in  the 
clangor  of  dissenting  opinions.  But  there 
are  others  about  who  are  weak  in  their 
faith,  they  can  see  only  at  short  raage 
26 


GIVING  WHAT  WE  HAVE. 

and  believe  only  what  they  see.  They  are 
crippled.  What  they  lack  we  can  supply. 
Not  as  though  we  should  feel  intellectually 
or  spiritually  superior  to  them  and  thus 
seek  to  minister  to  them,  but  by  letting 
them  share  our  faith  and  hope,  imparting 
to  them  the  largeness  of  our  spiritual 
views,  until  they  see  that  the  rigor  and 
vigor  of  logic  is  a  crutch  to  help  a  lame 
man  along,  but  not  necessary  to  one  who 
approaches  life  through  the  door  of  faith. 
They  will  become  able  to  adjust  their  faith 
to  reason  and  will  not  try  to  reason  their 
way  to  faith.  They  will  stand  upon  their 
feet  and  walk  as  the  deepest  needs  of  their 
intellectual  and  spiritual  natures  demand 
they  should. 

Here  are  a  few  of  the  ways  in  which  we 
can  help  this  world  along  and  bring  our 
fellow-beings  into  a  better  understanding 
of  themselves  and  of  the  universe.  What 
the  world  needs  to-day  is  not  more  knowl- 
edge or  more  wealth  or  more  comfort  or 
more  luxury.  We  are  surfeited  with  these. 
27 


SPIEITUAL  VALUES. 

What  our  brother  is  yearning  for  is  sym- 
pathy and  helpfulness.  Not  giving  what 
we  do  not  possess,  borrowing  it  perhaps 
and  going  bankrupt,  morally  and  spirit- 
ually. But  giving  what  we  have,  believing 
in  its  miracle  working  power,  and  acting 
upon  our  belief. 

This  is  the  gospel  of  Jesus.  If  we  pro- 
fess to  follow  the  Christ  this  is  our  gospel. 
It  is  a  workable  gospel.  It  supplies  an 
every-day  need.  Every  man  can  apply  it, 
some  more  in  one  way,  some  more  in  an- 
other. 

And  we  shall  be  called  upon  frequently 
to  test  our  gospel  when  it  seems  more  im- 
portant to  do  something  else.  Peter  and 
John  were  going  into  church.  The  hour 
for  the  service  had  arrived.  Their  duty 
surely  lay  in  this  direction  rather  than  to 
help  one  of  the  numerous  beggars  who 
crowded  the  Gate  Beautiful.  He  would  be 
there  after  the  service  ended.  They  could 
help  him  then.  But  no.  The  teaching  of 
Jesus  made  even  the  Church  service  sec- 
28 


GIVING  WHAT  WE  HAVE. 

ondary  to  tlie  helping  of  a  fellow-man  when 
the  opportunity  offered. 

Or  Peter  might  have  given  the  man 
money  for  his  physical  needs.  It  is  easy 
for  some  to  help  humanity  with  gold  or 
silver.  But  this  would  not  have  been  suf- 
ficient. The  personal  touch,  the  intimate 
sympathy,  would  have  been  lacking.  The 
man  would  have  had  to  come  again  and 
ask  for  more  alms.  To  avoid  this  he  must 
be  helped  so  that  he  could  rise  and  help 
himself.  Only  as  Peter  gave  of  the  power 
which  the  Christ  had  bestowed  upon  him, 
could  he  help  the  man.  Some  power  of 
this  kind  has  been  bestowed  upon  every 
one  of  us ;  we  do  not  know  to  what  degree 
until  we  test  its  strength.  It  is  a  spiritual 
possession,  not  a  material;  and  will  work 
a  miracle  where  silver  and  gold  would  be 
ineffective. 

Giving  what  we  have  and  by  so  doing 
discovering  powers  we  did  not  think  we 
possessed — this  is  the  message  we  learn 
at  the  Gate  Beautiful. 
29 


ni. 

THE  PEEILS  OF  POPULAEITY. 

The  events  of  Passion  Week  lie  before 
US  as  the  events  of  any  other  period  of  his- 
tory, and  we  can  review  them  from  begin- 
ning to  end.  It  was  not  so  in  the  case  of 
Jesus'  disciples  as  they  stood  on  that  first 
Palm  Sunday,  the  center  of  a  tremendous 
outburst  in  recognition  of  Jesus '  Kingship. 
For  the  disciples,  doubtless,  the  struggle 
and  disappointment  of  Jesus'  ministry 
were  at  an  end.  Now  He  was  accepted  a^ 
Israel's  King;  soon  He  would  be  crowned 
and  sit  on  David's  throne. 

Not  so  Jesus.  He  understood  the  mul- 
titude. He  knew  what  were  the  perils  of 
this  sudden  popularity.  If  we  watch  Him 
closely  as  He  allows  the  crowd  to  honor 
Him  we  shall  see  how  little  He  was  in- 
fluenced by  the  circumstance.  The  events 
30 


THE  PERILS  OF  POPULARITY. 

of  His  short  ministry  showed  Him  gradu- 
ally but  umnistakenly  what  He  must  ex- 
pect at  the  hands  of  His  own  people.  And 
we  may  well  believe  that  in  the  very  midst 
of  Palm  Sunday  He  could  see  His  Geth- 
semane.  The  shouts  of  **Hosanna,  hail  to 
our  King,"  brought  the  echo,  **We  have 
no  king  but  Caesar;  crucify  Him!  crucify 
Him ! ' '  The  enthusiastic  crowd  about  Him 
as  He  entered  the  city  in  triumph,  indicated 
only  the  howling  mob  that  would  be  about 
Him  as  He  left  it  in  disgrace.  The  honor 
bestowed  upon  Him  as  He  was  placed  upon 
the  King's  animal  and  conducted  along  the 
decorated  highway  to  the  courts  of  the 
Temple  brought  only  the  picture  of  the 
via  dolorosa  and  of  His  staggering  under 
the  weight  of  His  own  cross.  The  shadow 
of  Calvary  was  already  on  the  brow  of 
Olivet,  and  the  gloom  of  Good  Friday  cast 
its  solemnity  backward  over  Palm  Sunday. 
Jesus  has  the  distinction  as  none  other 
has  of  pointing  the  way  for  man.  When 
He  said,  **I  go  to  prepare  a  place  for 
31 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 

yon,"  His  words  had  a  very  practical 
meaning.  He  goes  before  man  in  the  wil- 
derness of  life  and  blazes  the  way  for  him. 
If  man  has  shown  great  ingenuity  and  deep 
insight  and  gone  far  along  unknown  ways 
leading  his  fellow-men  in  truth  and  dis- 
covery, he  always  finds  that  Jesus  has  been 
before  him.  His  footsteps  are  found  on 
every  roadway  of  human  experience,  and 
he  who  runs,  if  he  will,  may  read  them. 
He  could  not  be  fooled  by  the  mere  ex- 
igency of  human  events.  He  saw  deep  into 
the  meaning  of  things  and  could  not  be 
misled  by  any  fortuitous  circumstance. 

The  career  of  a  man  must  be  laid  in  the 
concrete  of  his  own  character.  And  char- 
acter must  be  founded  upon  the  deep  un- 
derlying truths  of  nature.  These  are  not 
found  on  the  surface.  Man  comes  to  them 
only  by  discernment,  and  discernment  is 
the  result  of  closely  following  the  distinc- 
tions between  morals  and  conduct,  between 
desires  for  things  that  are  temporary  and 
things  that  are  lasting,  between  popularity 
32 


THE  PERILS  OF  POPULARITY. 

with  the  public  approval  and  actions  which 
are  right,  whatever  may  be  the  opinion 
of  the  public. 

So  Jesus  on  Palm  Sunday  was  not  in 
any  way  taken  by  surprise.  He  had  read 
the  heart  of  His  own  people  truly.  They 
were  so  enmeshed  in  the  present  that  they 
could  not  see  the  trend  of  events.  He  had 
already  chided  their  leaders  for  being  un- 
able to  read  the  signs  of  the  times.  Events 
of  to-day  had  no  significance  for  them  in 
the  light  of  to-morrow.  They  could  not 
see  that  conduct,  which  was  not  right, 
could  never  run  on  lines  which  would 
converge  in  truth  and  goodness.  They 
could  not  understand  that  a  point  gained 
to-day  would  be  of  no  value  to-morrow, 
unless  the  point  was  rightly  gained  and  had 
abiding  significance  for  the  future.  Es- 
pecially were  they  absolutely  unable  to  see 
that  a  Jewish  king  on  Caesar's  throne 
would  not  solve  their  problems  or  lessen 
their  burdens,  but  would  only  aggravate 
the  desire  of  Rome  to  control  them  and 
«  33 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 

bring  upon  them  a  more  powerful  army 
and  a  more  determined  intention  to  sub- 
jugate them.  Tbeir  only  safety  and  tbeir 
peace  and  prosperity  lie  in  the  elevation 
of  the  King  of  righteousness  on  the  throne 
of  David,  and  the  perpetuation  of  'His 
Kingdom  by  lives  of  purity  and  goodness. 
For  this  they  were  not  ready.  Jesus  knew 
the  mind  of  the  crowd  and  saw  even  in 
those  crying  so  enthusiastically  for  Him 
the  fickleness  which  would  cause  them  to 
desert  Him. 

The  popularity  of  Jesus  on  Palm  Sun- 
day, therefore,  was  only  the  forerunner  of 
His  crucifixion  on  the  following  Friday. 
He  is  marked  as  the  Man  of  Sorrows  even 
on  the  day  of  His  greatest  outward  tri- 
umph. This  very  fact  is  another  indica- 
tion of  how  Jesus  met  the  hard  realities 
of  life  and  lived  the  experiences  which 
every  man  who  gains  popular  applause 
must  make.  He  had  the  keen  ear  to  distin- 
guish the  divergent  waves  in  the  shouting. 
And  long  before  the  approving  voices  had 
34 


THE  PERILS  OF  POPULARITY. 

ceased,  He  caught  the  faint  but  louder 
growing  echoes  of  dissent.  He  would  not 
court  popularity.  That  was  for  children, 
not  for  men;  especially  for  a  man  with  a 
destiny.  For  the  world  will  little  note  nor 
long  remember  what  men  do  that  gains 
them  applause;  it  will  take  account  only 
of  their  lasting  benefit  to  humanity.  And 
this  the  present  generation  can  never  ap- 
preciate. We  are  too  near  the  facts.  As 
we  can  not  see  the  hands  of  the  clock  go 
round,  so  are  we  unable  to  discover  history 
in  the  making.     Only  time  reveals  it. 

The  saying  that  no  man  is  great  until 
he  is  dead  is  true,  because  not  until  he 
has  passed  away  can  his  acts  be  estimated 
calmly  and  without  prejudice.  Jesus  de- 
clared the  same  truth  when  He  said,  **A 
prophet  is  not  without  honor  except  in  his 
own  land  and  among  his  own  people." 
For  in  his  own  land  there  are  too  many 
vying  with  him  for  the  supremacy,  and 
from  the  plateau  of  the  present  the  low 
peaks  of  rivalry  hide  the  high  summit  be- 
35 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 

yond.  And  among  his  own  people  he  is 
too  well  known.  His  greatness  is  hidden 
by  the  mnltiplicity  of  little  things  his 
friends  and  acquaintances  know  about  him. 
Emerson  has  said,  **  Heaven  sometimes 
hedges  a  rare  character  about  with  un- 
gainliness  and  odium,  as  the  burr  that  pro- 
tects the  fruit."  It  would  seem  that  all 
the  great  men  have  been  buried  in  their 
day  by  the  very  familiarity  of  their  lives 
which  should  have  disclosed  their  great- 
ness. We  wonder  why  it  is  that  Lincoln 
made  so  little  impression  on  the  leaders  of 
his  day  and  that  his  almost  superhuman 
dealing  with  the  problems  of  his  time  was 
not  recognized.  Doubtless  a  rare  charac- 
ter must  be  hedged  about  so  that  the  pop- 
ulace will  not  recognize  his  greatness  and 
lead  him  to  his  doom  by  popular  acclaim. 
History  makes  account  of  many  a  man  who 
had  the  marks  of  greatness  upon  him,  but 
who  was  spoiled  for  any  real  service  to  his 
people  and  time  because  of  premature 
praise  that  was  bestowed  upon  him. 
36 


THE  PERILS  OF  POPULARITY. 

One  of  the  consequences  of  greatness  is 
to  be  misunderstood  and  maligned.  There 
were  those  in  Jerusalem  on  that  Palm  Sun- 
day who  were  asking  themselves,  without 
prejudice,  whether  Jesus  really  was  the 
leader  which  the  prophets  declared  was  to 
come.  He  truly  was  great,  He  had  a  won- 
derful influence  over  the  public,  none  dis- 
cerned truth  as  He  did  and  none  taught 
so  convincingly.  Yet  they  were  in  doubt 
as  to  His  true  greatness.  They  wagged 
their  heads  and  were  ready  to  look  for 
weakness  rather  than  strength.  So  men  of 
commanding  prominence  to-day  must  meet 
the  criticism  of  the  public.  "Yes,  he  is  a 
great  man ;  but  still  he  is  not  doing  any- 
thing so  wonderful.  See  the  mistakes  he 
has  made.  They  surely  indicate  a  con- 
stitutional weakness."  The  approval  of 
the  public  is  as  uncertain  as  a  spring 
day,  and  may  change  without  warning 
into  fierce  onslaught.  Even  those  who 
were  nearest  to  Jesus  all  through  His  min- 
istry deserted  Him  in  the  end  and  by  their 
37 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 

conduct  showed  they  had  lost  faith  in  His 
greatness.  A  big  man  is  always  more  in 
danger  of  being  hit  than  a  small  man ;  and 
one  who  is  doing  many  things  o:ffers  more 
chances  for  attack  than  one  who  is  keeping 
his  hands  folded.  In  the  incidents  of 
Palm  Sunday  and  Good  Friday  we  learn 
the  fate  that  must  necessarily  come  to  him 
who  would  carry  the  burdens  of  humanity 
and  advance  the  cause  of  his  fellows. 

The  futility  of  striving  for  popular  ap- 
proval, therefore,  is  evident.  A  man  who 
is  more  ready  to  ask  what  will  win  favor 
than  what  would  be  right  has  none  of  the 
marks  of  leadership  upon  him.  For  a 
season  the  praise  of  his  fellows  will  ring 
in  his  ears.  But  the  noise  will  soon  cease 
and  in  the  silence  which  follows  his  name 
will  not  be  heard.  The  term  '*  opportun- 
ist,'' applied  to  a  leader  of  a  party  or  other 
organization,  stigmatizes  a  man  beyond 
recognition  of  his  better  qualities.  This 
word  first  came  into  use  in  France  about 
the  year  1783  and  characterized  the  party 
38 


THE  PERILS  OF  POPULARITY. 

of  concession,  tlie  party  that  would  bow 
to  public  clamor,  waiting  for  an  opportu- 
nity to  act  in  favor  of  the  public  wish.  So 
the  word  means  the  leader  who  will  not 
urge  upon  others  his  principles  or  beliefs 
unless  the  occasion  be  opportune,  and 
hence  characterizes  him  as  one  without 
settled  principles  or  consistent  policy,  one 
who  holds  his  ear  to  the  ground  to  ascer- 
tain what  the  public  in  superficial  clamor 
wants.  Nature  is  not  governed  by  chance, 
but  by  law.  Mankind  is  steadied  in  the 
conflict  of  opinion  by  the  leaders  who  rule 
according  to  principle  and  not  opportunity. 
It  has  been  well  said  that  **  modem  poli- 
ticians are  for  the  most  part  no  longer 
men  trained  from  their  youth  in  the  phi- 
losophy of  government,  but  opportunists 
who  view  politics  as  a  field  for  self-ad- 
vancement.'^  Such  an  one  will  always 
look  for  popular  favor;  public  applause 
will  be  to  him  the  indication  that  he  Is 
meeting  the  wishes  of  the  people;  he  will 
be  unable  to  read  the  signs  of  the  times  and 
39 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 

discover  how  soon  the  public  will  turn  him 
down. 

So  there  have  been  opportunists  in  lit- 
erature, in  education,  in  the  Church.  The 
reproach  of  authorship  to-day  is  that  men 
are  ready  to  sell  their  talent  for  what 
they  think  the  people  want,  rather  than 
give  them  what  they  know  they  ought  to 
have.  We  call  such  literature  cheap  and 
would  not  be  disturbed  by  it  were  it  not 
that  an  undiscriminating  public  will  grab 
for  this  sort  of  reading  matter.  But  we 
are  consoled  by  the  fact  that  such  stuff 
has  no  abiding  value  and  writers  thereof 
soon  sink  into  oblivion.  Men  have  striven 
for  results  in  education  and  religion  when 
they  were  convinced  that  they  were  doing 
the  best  that  could  be  done  under  the  cir- 
cijmstances.  And  this  kind  of  opportun*- 
ism  has  a  certain  justification.  But  it  can 
never  take  the  place  of  the  broad  prin- 
ciples which  center  in  truth  and  right,  and 
which  must  always  prevail  because  they 
have  the  future  as  well  as  the  present 
in  mind.  40 


THE  PERILS  OF  POPULARITY. 

He  who  would  lead  men  must  carry  their 
burdens.  This  means  the  cross.  Unless 
he  is  able  to  ride  down  Olivet  on  Palm 
Sunday  and  not  be  turned  from  duty  be- 
cause of  popular  applause,  he  will  shrink 
from  walking  the  steeps  of  Calvary  on 
Friday  amid  the  jeering  crowd.  To  that 
extent  he  will  fail.  History  will  never 
say  of  him,  **He  saved  others,  himself 
he  could  not  save."  The  verdict  will  be, 
"In  trying  to  save  himself  he  became 
self-centered  and  could  not  see  beyond  the 
horizon  of  his  own  interests."  Jesus  was 
never  in  peril  on  account  of  popularity 
because  He  never  could  allow  Himself  to 
regard  applause  as  approval.  He  coveted 
neither  the  one  nor  the  other,  but  only 
to  do  the  will  of  Him  who  sent  Him.  He 
could  afford,  therefore,  to  lose  His  own 
life  in  saving  others. 


41 


IV. 

LIMITING  GOD. 

The  psalmist,  in  describing  the  attitude  of 
the  children  of  Israel  toward  God  as  they 
were  being  led  from  Egypt  to  Canaan, 
said,  **Yea,  they  turned  back  and  tempted 
God,  and  limited  the  Holy  One  of  Israel/' 
They  criticised  unfavorably,  they  grum- 
bled, they  rebelled.  And  so  this  writer, 
with  a  keen  insight,  records  his  judgment, 
that  in  so  acting  the  Israelites  limited 
God,  and  thus  held  Him  from  doing  all 
that  He  otherwise  could  have  done. 

As  soon  as  our  attention  is  called  to 
this  fact,  we  appreciate  its  importance. 
In  the  conduct  of  the  children  of  Israel  we 
recognize  the  conduct  K)f  mankind  gen- 
erally. In  ourselves,  as  individuals,  we 
see  how  we  shorten  the  hand  of  God  and 
force  Him  at  times  to  throw  His  blessings 
42 


LIMITING  GOD. 

at  us  with  difficulty,  rather  than  let  Him 
hand  them  to  us  naturally  and  gently. 

One  of  the  incomprehensible  features  of 
man's  nature  is  his  unwillingness  to  take 
the  best  of  life  there  is  as  it  is  offered  to 
him  freely.  There  is  at  once  a  certain 
rebellion  against  leadership  of  a  higher 
kind,  and  an  inability  to  see  beyond  im- 
mediate circumstances  to  the  greater  good 
that  is  to  be  attained  in  the  future.  Both 
these  traits  are  splendidly  illustrated  in 
the  conduct  of  the  Israelites  as  they  jour- 
neyed through  the  wilderness.  They  did 
not  appreciate  Moses*  leadership.  They 
rebelled  against  it,  they  tempted  him,  they 
provoked  him,  until  finally  his  powers  were 
limited.  Furthermore,  they  could  not  look 
beyond  their  immediate  present.  They  lost 
sight  of  the  land — of  which  they  had  a 
good  account  —  flowing  with  milk  and 
honey,  and  murmured  concerning  the  meat 
and  drink  with  which  God  was  daily  pro- 
viding them.  The  freedom  and  the  pros- 
pects of  the  promised  land  were  forgotten 
43 


SPIEITUAL  VALUES. 

in  the  necessary  hardships  of  the  desert. 
Many  said,  **Let  ns  go  back  to  Egypt  and 
the  taskmasters ;  we  were  better  off  there.'* 
The  trouble  with  the  Israelites  was  that 
they  did  not  have  full  confidence  in  their 
God.  They  entertained  low  and  circum- 
scribed notions  of  His  power  and  goodness 
and  faithfulness.  They  limited  Him.  And 
this  is  what  men  have  always  done.  We 
need  only  glance  over  the  development 
of  learning  to  see  how  true  this  is.  In 
science  and  philosophy  men  have  not  been 
able  to  get  along  without  God.  However 
independent  they  have  become  at  times, 
they  have  never  been  able  to  make  man- 
kind believe  there  is  no  God  in  and  through 
and  of  all  things.  But  science  and  phi- 
losophy, while  not  able  to  do  without  God, 
still  have  persisted  in  limiting  Him.  Some 
tell  us  that  God's  function  was  simply  to 
start  this  world  agoing,  but  that  thereafter 
He  had  no  proper  office,  either  in  or  out- 
side the  world.  And  could  these  men  find 
the  fact  of  creation  in  some  force  outside 
44 


LIMITING  GOD. 

of  God — and  some  even  have  hopes  of  this 
— they  would  not  have  given  the  Creator 
any  place  whatever  in  His  universe. 
Others  make  a  hard  and  fast  distinction 
between  natural  and  supernatural,  but  give 
reality  only  to  the  natural,  and  hence  claim 
that  only  the  natural  laws  and  movements, 
as  we  know  them,  can  be  considered  by 
any  intelligent  man.  The  supernatural 
they  would  call  miraculous,  and  everything 
which  must  be  attribued  to  the  miraculous 
they  consider  nonsense. 

Now  we  are  perfectly  willing  to  let  the 
distinction  between  the  natural  and  super- 
natural go.  It  is  better  that  it  should,  for 
all  of  God's  movements  are  natural.  If 
something  seems  to  us  to  be  contrary  to 
nature,  we  ought  neither  to  say  that  it 
could  not  have  happened  nor  that  it  hap- 
pened according  to  the  supernatural.  For 
in  both  cases  we  should  be  limiting  God  to 
a  sphere  of  knowledge  and  power  only 
known  to  us.  We  would  confine  God's 
knowledge  in  the  limits  of  our  own.  To 
45 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 

say,  for  example,  that  Jesus  could  not  have 
healed  a  lame  man  or  caused  a  blind  man 
to  see,  because  this  would  be  contrary  to 
nature,  is  simply  to  say  that  we  know  all 
the  laws  of  nature,  and  that  no  laws  of 
nature  exist  that  we  do  not  know.  And 
yet  we  are  discovering  new  laws  of  nature 
every  day.  And  when  these  are  discovered 
we  do  not  say  they  never  existed  before. 
No  man,  however  else  he  would  limit  God, 
has  declared  this.  Not  the  man  of  science 
or  philosophy,  therefore,  but  the  eternal 
God  is  the  judge  of  what  we  call  natural 
law.  And  when  we  try  to  limit  His  sphere 
or  power,  the  heavens  shall  have  us  in  de- 
rision, for  we  only  shall  have  exhibited  our 
own  limitations. 

Not  only  in  His  power  do  men  seek  to 
limit  God,  but  also  in  His  goodness  and 
faithfulness.  God  is  good  when  all  is  well 
with  us.  But  calamity,  misfortune,  sick- 
ness, death,  change  the  attitude  of  many 
towards  the  Father.  How  hard  the  heart 
may  become,  how  harsh  the  word,  how  cyn- 
46 


LIMITING  GOD. 

ical  and  pessimistic  the  expression  and  de- 
meanor! We  thus  set  a  limit  to  the  good- 
ness and  faithfulness  of  God;  we  declare 
He  is  not  perfectly  good,  or  He  would  not 
have  done  so  and  so ;  we  pronounce  against 
His  constancy  because  this  or  that  event 
did  not  happen  as  we  thought  it  would  or 
should.  We  are  like  the  Children  of  Israel 
who  did  not  have  full  faith  in  their  God. 
And  so  out  of  circumstances  immediately 
about  us,  out  of  our  daily  disappointments 
and  trials,  we  build  a  barrier  around  us 
and  limit  God  to  this  circumference,  not 
realizing  that  His  purpose  is  an  eternal 
one,  that  His  eye  and  mind  and  will  com- 
prehend all  space  and  time  and  process, 
and  that  He  operates  only  to  bring  man 
into  a  closer  union  and  fellowship  with 
Him  and  to  bless  him  for  evermore. 

Man  sets  a  limit  to  God's  power  and 
goodness,  denies  that  He  is  omnipotent, 
doubts  whether  He  is  all-loving  and  con- 
stant. But  God  in  no  way  is  affected  by 
this;  He  goes  on  exerting  His  power  and 
47 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 

exhibiting  His  goodness.  There  is  no  limit 
to  either.  He  is  the  Eternal  Source,  the 
wise  and  loving  Distributor  of  both. 

And  yet,  while  man  can  not  limit  God  in 
His  power  and  goodness,  can  not  weaken 
the  one  nor  lessen  the  other,  he  can  limit 
God  in  His  action.  **Yea,  they  turned  back 
and  tempted  God  and  limited  the  Holy  One 
of  Israel.'' 

Man  limits  God  because  of  unbelief  in 
Him.  One  might  deny  the  power  of  the 
sun,  and  yet  the  sun  would  in  no  wise  be 
limited.  But  he  might  close  up  his  doors 
and  windows,  shut  out  even  the  tiniest  ray 
of  light,  and  live  in  a  dank  and  unwhole- 
some air.  So  to  deny  the  existence  of  God 
does  not  affect  God  in  any  way.  But  un- 
belief of  this  kind  is  the  shutting  of  the 
soul's  doors  and  windows,  refusing  to  let 
God's  light  and  air  brighten  and  invigorate 
and  warm  the  soul  so  that  it  can  live  and 
move  in  its  appointed  sphere. 

We  read  that  Jesus  did  not  many  mighty 
works  in  His  own  country,  because  of  the 
48 


LIMITING  GOD. 

unbelief  of  His  countrymen.  His  power 
was  not  limited,  but  His  ability  to  let  it 
become  operative  in  the  heart  and  mind 
was  weakened.  Whosoever  should  disbe- 
lieve the  fact  that  two  and  two  make  four 
would  in  no  wise  disturb  the  relationship 
of  numbers.  But  if  he  undertook  to  act  on 
the  assumption  that  two  and  two  make  one 
or  five  or  nothing,  he  would  disturb  his 
own  equilibrium  and  could  neither  think 
rightly  nor  act  wisely.  He  would  limit 
truth  so  that  it  could  have  no  influence 
upon  him  and  would  necessarily  fall  with- 
out the  pale  of  truth-loving  and  seeking 
and  obeying  men.  To  disbelieve  in  God 
does  not  affect  God.  But  such  an  attitude 
limits  His  power  of  manifestation. 

Unbelief  has  a  confining  effect.  If  we 
question  a  man's  honesty  or  candor  or 
ability,  we  limit  him  at  once.  It  is  like 
tying  a  weight  to  him  and  then  expect 
him  to  move  freely.  Belief  in  a  man's 
honesty,  on  the  other  hand,  has  made  even 
dishonest  men  break  loose  from  crooked 

49 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 

ways.  Confidence  in  a  man's  sincerity  and 
ability  goes  far  to  lielp  a  weak  and  vacil- 
lating man  become  strong  and  self-respect- 
ing. Without  doing  any  violence  to  the 
facts  whatever,  we  can  say  that  believing 
men  have  always  made  for  constructive 
forces,  and  unbelieving  men  for  destruc- 
tive. Take  any  great  period  of  unbelief 
in  the  history  of  civilization  and  prove  this 
statement.  A  man  who  has  no  will  to  be- 
lieve is  anarchistic  in  tendency.  He  is  a 
promoter  of  disorder,  whether  he  be  oper- 
ating in  the  world  of  letters  or  science  or 
art  or  education,  or  whether  in  the  home 
or  Church  or  State.  He  does  not  build  up, 
but  pulls  down. 

A  believer,  on  the  other  hand,  always 
makes  for  construction.  He  is  not  to  be 
considered  as  one  who  takes  everything 
for  granted,  who  never  looks  below  the  sur- 
face, who  never  investigates,  who  accepts 
every  profane  and  old  wives'  fable.  But 
he  has  a  will  to  believe ;  he  throws  himself 
on  the  side  of  law  and  order  and  well- 
50 


LIMITING  GOD. 

established  tradition,  and,  making  these 
assumptions,  proves  all  things  and  holds 
fast  to  that  which  is  good.  His  attitude 
of  faith  opens  the  avenues  to  truth  and, 
while  he  will  not  be  able  to  understand  all 
things,  he  will  be  able  to  sense  the  mean- 
ing of  many  a  mystery.  He  will  see  with 
the  eye  of  faith;  he  will  move  not  in  the 
material  world,  which  decays  with  each 
decade,  but  in  the  spiritual  world,  which 
ever  grows  larger  as  man  moves  forward. 
One  of  the  disciples  said  to  Jesus,  * '  Mas- 
ter, how  is  it  that  Thou  wilt  reveal  Thyself 
unto  us  and  not  unto  the  world!"  Jesus 
replied  that  His  life  and  teaching  were 
based  on  loving  and  believing  disciples. 
They  who  believed  in  Him  would  know 
Him.  The  world  which  disbelieved  Him 
could  not  understand  Him.  To  the  world 
He  would  forever  speak  in  mysteries,  pro- 
voking anger  and  scorn  and  ridicule.  To 
His  disciples  the  words  which  He  spoke 
would  be  spirit  and  truth. 


51 


PEACE  WITHIN. 

OuB  life,  like  the  ocean,  is  always  moving. 
Now  we  are  Mgli  on  the  waves,  now  dash- 
ing on  the  shore,  now  riding  in  storm  and 
tempest  and  seeing  strange  specters  walk- 
ing on  the  water. 

The  great  Master  centuries  ago  com- 
manded the  wind  and  the  waves  to  be  still, 
and  there  was  a  great  calm.  But  the  effect 
of  His  words  was  not  so  much  on  the  ele- 
ments of  air  and  sea  as  upon  His  disciples. 
They  had  become  still.  Fear  and  doubt 
had  fled.  Never  again  could  they  sail  that 
lake  in  a  storm  and  not  hear  the  words, 
**Be  still!''  and  find  that  their  quivering 
hearts  were  silenced.  For  it  was  not 
merely  to  subdue  the  tempest  that  Jesus 
came  to  them,  it  was  to  reassure  the  disci- 
ples and  strengthen  their  faith. 
52 


PEACE  WITHIN. 

Life  is  not  so  much  a  problem  of  sub- 
duing outward  forces.  It  is  a  task  of 
securing  inner  peace  in  the  calm  and  poise 
of  which  all  questions  are  to  be  judged  and 
all  conditions  met.  Not  so  long  ago  ma- 
chinists thought  two  engines  alternately 
running  would  wear  longer  than  one  en- 
gine running  all  the  required  time.  But 
it  was  discovered  that  not  the  continual 
running  of  the  machine  made  it  Wear  out 
more  rapidly,  but  the  friction  in  the  joints 
and  bearings.  So  especial  attention  was 
paid  to  reducing  friction  to  a  minimum. 
Oiling  and  packing  have  become  a 
science. 

We  think  sometimes  that  if  we  had  two 
bodies,  one  of  which  could  rest  while  the 
other  worked,  we  would  not  become  so  ex- 
hausted or  wear  out  so  soon,  and  would 
find  the  peace  we  covet.  The  man  who 
guarantees  a  machine  to  run  eight  hours 
every  day  for  a  certain  length  of  time  does 
so  with  full  knowledge  of  its  capacity.  So 
the  All-wise  Creator  knew  the  running 
53 


SPIEITUAL  VALUES. 

capacity  of  man.  He  made  the  changes  of 
night  and  day  for  rest  and  work,  ai^d  He 
appointed  one  day  in  seven  for  re-creation. 
Man  was  made  to  toil.  He  wears  his  life 
out  unduly  not  because  of  labor,  but  be- 
cause of  friction.  There  are  not  many  men 
who  work  eight  hours  a  day,  seven  days  in 
the  week,  and  fifty-two  weeks  in  the  year. 
But  there  are  many  who  worry  eighteen. 
They  have  not  learned  the  science  of  lubri- 
cating and  packing  the  bearings  and  joints 
of  their  mental  and  muscular  machinery  to 
reduce  friction  to  a  minimum.  To  master 
this  principle  is  as  much  the  concern  of 
man  for  the  body  as  it  is  of  the  mechanic 
for  a  machine. 

We  are  embarked  upon  the  sea  of  life 
as  the  disciples  were  upon  the  Sea  of  Gali- 
lee. It  was  their  business  to  be  there;  it 
is  ours  to  be  here.  They  had  no  control 
over  wind  and  wave;  it  was  their  task  to 
learn  how  to  trim  their  sails  and  balance 
their  boat  and  properly  steer  it  so  that 
it  would  neither  founder  on  a  rock  nor  cap- 
54 


PEACE  WITHIN. 

size  in  open  water.  This  was  a  knowledge 
first  of  the  spirit  and  will,  and  only  after- 
ward of  skill  and  muscle.  It  was  training 
the  man  to  be  thrown  into  the  very  teeth 
of  the  elements.  And  although  tempests 
came  which  they  could  not  foresee  and 
which  swallowed  up  many  an  inexperi- 
enced fisherman,  such  catastrophes  did  not 
in  any  sense  warrant  them  to  cease  learn- 
ing how  to  manage  their  boat  and  to  sail 
the  sea. 

Neither  have  we  control  over  the  great 
currents  and  upheavals  in  the  business  and 
social  world  which  sometimes  engulf  us. 
But  there  are  certain  rules  we  have 
learned;  we  know  that  under  certain  con- 
ditions the  wind  and  the  waves  will  act 
in  certain  ways,  and  our  training,  if  it  can 
be  called  such,  is  intended  to  meet  these 
conditions  and  to  teach  us  how  to  sail  our 
craft  in  safety.  It  is  the  inward  man 
first  of  all,  and  if  he  command  the  inner 
peace  of  composure  and  self -poise  he  will 
ride  the  harbor  safely.  He  will  know  how 
55 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 

to  manage  wind  and  wave,  or  to  keep  out 
of  their  clutch  when  they  are  too  much  for 
him.  He  will  remain  in  the  quiet  harbor 
and  let  them  chum  and  howl  outside.  He 
will  not  be  among  those  who,  when  the 
skies  are  lowering  and  the  lightning  al- 
ready flashing  and  the  thunder  rumbling, 
will  set  out  upon  the  financial  Lake  of 
Galilee.  Those  who  do  so,  invite  storm 
and  stress.  They  would  have  peace,  but 
refuse  to  pay  the  price.  If  peace  comes 
as  they  fly  in  the  teeth  of  the  wind,  they 
will  take  it ;  otherwise  not.  As  they  churn 
the  waves  they  set  everybody  else  to  rock- 
ing and  rolling.  As  they  n\adly  rush  for- 
ward to  grasp  a  prize,  they  force  in  their 
wake  those  who  would  otherwise  remain 
calm  and  unshaken. 

This  is  the  disease  of  our  present  life: 
to  rush  onward  in  spite  of  law  or  restraint. 
Whether  it  was  a  disease  of  five  centuries 
or  five  decades  ago  need  not  concern  us. 
It  is  a  present  problem  we  have  to  solve. 
We  read  of  the  simple  life  and  perhaps  are 
56 


PEACE  WITHIN. 

lulled  into  the  delusion  that  the  simple  life 
is  either  possible  or  desirable.  Not  the 
simple  life,  but  the  peaceful  life,  should  we 
strive  for.  When  everybody  nowadays 
must  walk  faster  or  lag  behind  it  is  idle 
to  talk  of  the  simple  pace  of  our  fore- 
fathers. Doubtless  they  thought  they  were 
whirling  along  rapidly  enough.  We  have 
our  own  pace  to  keep,  and  we  must  learn 
how  to  keep  it  in  peace.  Mr.  Huxley  is  said 
to  have  thrown  himself  into  a  jaunting  car 
in  Dublin  and  breathlessly  to  have  com- 
manded the  coachman,  *  *  Drive  fast  I ' '  The 
carriage  began  to  jolt  over  the  cobbles,  and 
Huxley,  collecting  himself,  said  to  the 
driver,  **Do  you  know  where  you  are  driv- 
ing?" And  he  replied,  **I  do  not,  sir;  but 
I  am  driving  fast,  all  right. "  So  humanity 
throws  itself  into  the  jaunting  car  of  life 
and  gives  the  command,  ** Drive  fast.'' 
But  whither f  By  driving  fast  we  mistake 
speed  for  progress.  In  speaking  of  the 
peaceful  life  we  confound  it  with  idleness 
and  inactivity.  But  the  busy  life  can  be 
57 


SPIEITUAL  VALUES. 

the  peaceful  life;  it  must  be  the  peaceful 
life.  For  only  thus  can  we  be  fitted  to  this 
world.  We  can  not  give  up  our  present 
activities.  But  in  pursuing  them  we  dare 
not  barter  away  our  peace. 

On  the  evening  in  which  Christ  was  be- 
trayed He  said  to  His  disciples,  **  Peace  I 
leave  with  you,  My  peace  I  give  unto  you.'* 
At  the  very  beginning  of  His  ministry  He 
said,  *  *  Come  unto  Me  all  ye  that  labor  and 
are  heavy  laden,  and  I  will  give  you  rest.'' 
And  yet,  can  we  imagine  a  more  busy  or  a 
more  restless  life  than  that  of  Jesus?  Was 
it  peace  He  was  looking  forward  to  in  that 
last  night  as  He  sat  with  His  disciples,  or 
a  sword?  Was  it  peace  He  was  looking 
forward  to  as  He  first  faced  His  career, 
or  conflict?  Was  there  any  time  in  His 
life  when  it  could  be  said  that  He  was 
peaceful  and  at  rest?  Surely  not  in  His 
boyhood  home  at  Nazareth,  when  they 
would  have  cast  Him  down  the  hill  head- 
long; or  on  the  shores  of  Galilee,  where 
people  could  not  come  nigh  Him  for  the 
58 


PEACE  WITHIN. 

press ;  or  in  Jerusalem,  when  He  was  spied 
upon  in  the  temple  and  in  the  streets  until 
He  was  forced  to  depart  from  the  city  each 
night  and  keep  in  hiding.  And  yet  we  sing 
of  His  life,  and  sing  truly,  that  it  was 
majestic,  calm,  serene.  Not  to  outward 
appearances,  it  is  true,  but  inwardly.  To 
be  at  peace  did  not  mean  to  Him  to  be  in- 
active or  idle  or  apart  from  the  crowd  or 
shut  off  from  the  world.  His  peace  was 
the  peace  of  the  restored  soul. 

We  are  apt  to  think  that  outward  con- 
ditions make  the  inner  states  of  mind  and 
heart.  It  is  the  inner  state  that  makes  the 
outward  condition.  Wealth  will  conduce 
to  happiness  only  if  the  soul  is  abounding 
and  rich.  Power  will  give  control  and  in- 
fluence only  if  the  mind  and  heart  and 
will  have  been  brought  under  subjection. 
There  can  be  comfort  and  peace  and  rest 
only  as  these  are  found  and  manifested  in 
the  soul-life.  Where  the  heart  of  man  is 
poor,  riches  only  throw  a  searchlight  upon 
that  poverty.  Where  the  mind  and  the 
59 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 

will  of  man  are  not  under  control,  temporal 
power  only  discloses  the  weakness  of  the 
fortification  that  should  guard  the  inner 
citadel.  When  outward  disturbance,  anx- 
iety, apprehension,  fear  are  manifest, 
there  is  evidence  of  inner  unrest,  of  an 
unrestored  soul. 

The  unrestful  heart  is  restless  in  pros- 
perity as  well  as  in  adversity;  in  times  of 
calm  as  well  as  in  seasons  of  tempest; 
when  the  birds  are  singing  and  the  skies 
are  blue  as  well  as  when  they  are  flying  to 
cover  beaten  by  the  first  drops  of  the  on- 
coming storm.  But  the  restored  heart  will 
be  at  ease  when  the  clouds  thicken  and  the 
skies  darken.  It  can  see  the  rainbow  in 
the  rain.  It  feels  already  the  warmth  of 
the  sun  which  will  shine  after  the  flood- 
gates have  been  closed.  It  hears  the  birds 
singing  in  spite  of  the  thunder.  It  catches 
the  sweet  sound  of  lowing  cattle  resting 
care  free  under  the  summer  shade  of  a 
wide  spreading  tree.  Its  habitual  condition 
is  joyful;  so  all  things  are  joyous.  Its 
60 


PEACE  WITHIN. 

every  expression  is  peace;  so  the  whole 
world  is  peaceful.  It  walks  in  paths  of 
righteousness ;  even  although  the  valley  of 
the  shadow  is  nigh,  it  fears  no  evil;  con- 
scious of  no  ill-will,  it  can  sit  at  meat  in 
the  presence  of  annoying  enemies;  good- 
ness and  mercy  follow  it  all  the  days  of 
life,  for  it  dwells  continually  in  the  house 
of  the  Lord. 

This  gift,  this  blessing  of  the  restful  and 
strong  heart  comes  from  above.  He  re- 
storeth  my  soul.  God  is  love,  for  He  has 
placed  within  our  grasp  and  under  our 
control  the  only  means  of  finding  and  se- 
curing peace.  We  are  thrown  out  into  the 
sea  of  life,  but  He  gives  us  an  anchor  to 
the  windward.  We  are  cast  into  the  tur- 
moil of  this  world,  but  He  reassures  us  in 
His  still  small  voice.  We  seem  to  be  left 
without  a  comforter  and  guide,  but  He 
sends  us  the  Christ  to  strengthen  our  weak- 
ness and  help  us  carry  our  load.  In  the 
power  of  perfect  manhood  He  comes,  but 
with  the  fullness  of  divinity — His  heart 
61 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 

without  guile,  His  lips  pure,  His  garments 
clean — and 

.     .     .     calls  us  o*er  the  tumult 
Of  our  life's  wild,  restless  sea. 

When  the  tempest  was  raging,  Jesus 
could  sleep  calmly.  When  the  mob  was 
howling  and  His  judges  were  unmanned, 
He  could  keep  still.  We  listen,  therefore, 
when  He  confidently  says,  **Let  not  your 
hearts  be  troubled.  Come  unto  Me."  In 
our  best  moments  we  hear  Him.  He  has  a 
word  for  all  men  and  for  every  mood.  To 
the  anxious  soul  He  quietly  suggests  that 
there  is  no  cause  for  disturbance.  Peace 
can  be  found  within.  To  the  seeking  mind 
He  declares  that  no  cause  for  doubt  or  per- 
plexity exists,  and  wisely  recommends  a 
search  for  truth  within  oneself  and  in  Him. 
To  the  saddened,  the  sick,  the  longing,  the 
heavy,  the  lonesome.  His  encouragement  is 
that  as  they  come  to  know  Him  they  will 
learn  to  know  themselves  and  their  life's 
destinies.  He  penetrates  the  heart  of 
62 


PEACE  WITHIN. 

man's  condition  and  hopes  in  a  prononnce- 
ment  at  once  ultimate  and  universal,  **In 
the  world  you  will  have  tribulation ;  but  be 
of  good  cheer.  I  have  overcome  the  world. 
In  Me  you  will  find  rest  unto  your  souls." 


63 


VI. 

TRANSFIGURATION  AND  SLUMBER. 

The  Transfiguration  began  while  the  dis- 
ciples were  dead  in  slumber.  The  glory  of 
the  Christ  was  before  them,  but  they  did 
not  see  His  glory.  Not  until  they  were 
awake  did  they  know  of  its  power  and 
beauty. 

The  eternal  truths  of  God's  revelation 
are  in  the  world  everywhere.  Only  as  men 
are  awake,  however,  and  in  full  possession 
of  their  faculties  are  they  able  to  discover 
these  truths. 

Nature  itself  is  transfigured  before  men. 
Its  glory  and  wonder  shine  about  us.  But 
it  has  no  meaning  for  men  who  are  asleep. 
There  are  those  who  live  on  high  mountain 
passes,  where  the  splendors  of  nature  are 
spread  out  below  them.  And  yet  there  is 
64 


TRANSFIGURATION  AND  SLUMBER. 

no  transfiguration,  because  they  are  asleep. 
There  are  those  who  live  in  the  valleys, 
where  they  can  look  over  the  fertile  plains 
and  up  to  the  foothills  and  the  towering 
heights  beyond,  and  to  sun  and  moon  and 
stars  which  in  all  their  seductive  influence 
woo  but  do  not  win,  because  those  looking 
are  dulled  to  their  charms.  God  made  a 
world  which  the  verdict  of  history  declares 
to  be  beautiful  and  good.  Wide-awake 
men  behold  its  transfigurement.  But  only 
to  such  is  this  miracle  shown. 

Literature,  music,  art,  have  their  trans- 
figuration in  the  depth  of  the  soul.  There 
is  the  power  that  draws  over  the  poem,  the 
statue,  the  symphony,  such  change  as  to 
take  it  quite  out  of  the  sphere  of  the 
human.  If  men  are  awake,  the  glory  of  the 
Almighty  is  discovered  in  the  human  in- 
struments which  He  has  chosen  to  set  forth 
His  truths.  The  galleries  may  be  full  of 
paintings,  the  libraries  stocked  with  books, 
the  world  itself  tuned  to  the  harmonies  of 
the  Infinite.  But  if  there  is  no  wakeful  re- 
65 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 

sponse  on  the  part  of  man,  tlie  miracle  of 
tlie  transfiguration  remains  a  mystery. 
The  dulled  heart  and  deafened  ear  and 
sleeping  eye  can  not  feel  or  hear  or  see. 
The  glory  of  the  inspiration  of  the  Al- 
mighty, as  it  has  changed  men  and  made 
them  poets,  artists,  musicians,  has  been  a 
fact  from  the  beginning  of  time.  But  the 
transfiguration  has  been  witnessed  only  by 
men  who  were  awake. 

So,  too,  is  there  the  transfiguration  in 
lives  which  have  striven  after  good  deeds 
and  loving  ministration.  The  sainted  life 
is  transfigured,  the  glory  of  God  changes 
the  outward  figure,  the  face  glistens  like 
the  bright  rays  of  light,  and  the  form 
changes  into  the  whiteness  of  snow.  This, 
too,  has  been  happening  from  the  founda- 
tion of  the  world.  Men  and  women  have 
been  transfigured  before  their  fellow-be- 
ings ;  but  only  as  these  latter  are  awake  can 
they  see  the  glory. 

There   is    a   transfigurement   in   every 
honest  effort  at  labor  or  toil.     Work  is 
66 


TRANSFIGURATION  AND  SLUMBER. 

transfigured  if  the  work  be  worthy.  No 
position  in  life  is  so  humble  as  to  escape 
the  transfigurement  of  the  Almighty.  Men 
are  asleep  before  this  fact.  If  there  can 
be  a  transfigurement  in  toil  at  all,  so  some 
think,  it  must  be  in  some  great  labor,  some- 
thing that  has  stirred  the  soul  and  awak- 
ened the  conscience  of  humanity,  some- 
thing the  sound  whereof  has  sent  its  echoes 
to  the  farthest  shore  of  human  life.  A 
transfigurement  of  this  kind,  perhaps,  is 
possible.  But  for  the  humble,  unheard-of 
toiler  who  remains  at  his  duty  day  by  day 
there  can  be  no  such  miracle.  Yet  while 
men  are  asleep  the  transfigurement  of 
lowly  labor  goes  on.  As  men  become 
awake  they  see  its  glory  and  realize  that 
every  upright  toiler  is  on  holy  ground  in 
the  presence  of  the  Almighty. 

We  need  not  look  for  any  mystery  in  this 
incident  which  is  related  of  Jesus  as  He 
was  transfigured  before  His  disciples. 
They  had  been  asleep  for  months,  even  al- 
though their  eyes  were  opened,  and  they 
67 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 

could  not  see  the  glory  of  the  Father.  The 
lesson  is  realistically  pointed  out  to  us  on 
the  high  mountain  where  Jesus  took  His 
disciples  apart.  There  was  no  underlying 
mystery  or  any  deep  secret.  The  miracle 
in  the  life  of  Jesus  was  an  ordinary  one, 
because  the  same  miracle,  if  we  will 
but  see  it,  is  ordinary  to  us  in  this  day. 
The  fact  of  transfiguration  can  not  be 
disputed.  We  work  along  day  by  day  in 
the  material  and  prosaic  march  of  our 
duties.  Our  feet  are  on  the  ground ;  they 
move  heavily ;  often  do  they  become  mired, 
because  we  allow  them  to  be  weighted  with 
the  cares  of  daily  life.  We  are  so  much 
engrossed  with  looking  after  the  wants  of 
our  physical  natures  and  physical  condi- 
tions that  we  become  unconscious  of  the 
higher  side  of  human  life.  We  look  at  the 
external,  we  think  of  the  external.  The 
world  about  us  is  near,  sometimes  painfully 
near.  We  would  put  our  hands  upon  what 
we  can  feel  and  grasp;  we  would  put  our 
eyes  upon  what  we  can  see  and  hold;  we 
68 


TRANSFIGURATION  AND  SLUMBER. 

would  walk  upon  tlie  firm  surface  of  the 
earth.    This  is  our  world ;  this  is  our  life. 

And  so  humankind  is  not  in  a  position 
to  behold  the  presence  and  the  transfigura- 
tion of  the  eternal  about  us.  We  do  not 
look  within  and  discover  the  needs  of  the 
soul;  nay,  some  would  even  declare  that 
there  is  no  soul.  We  do  not  find  in  the  heart 
of  nature  something  that  is  hidden  from 
sight,  something  that  the  hand  can  not 
touch  or  the  feet  walk  upon,  something  that 
goes  to  the  very  center  of  being.  And  be- 
cause we  are  dulled  to  these  inner  suscepti- 
bilities, to  these  inner  responses,  we  sleep 
on  and  do  not  know  that  the  transfigura- 
tion is  taking  place. 

A  discriminating  English  writer  has  re- 
cently written  on  **The  Spirit  of  Amer- 
ica," and  has  pointed  out  the  fact  that  no- 
where else  than  in  our  country  is  there  a 
more  evident  desire  to  purchase  the  results 
of  culture,  to  expend  vast  sums  of  money 
to  bring  the  singer  or  player,  or  the 
painting  or  statue,  from  Europe.  But  the 
69 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 

American  is  striving  after  something  that 
can  not  be  bought.  The  soul  of  the  poet 
or  writer  can  not  be  acquired  by  mate- 
rial means.  The  borrowed  culture  from 
Europe,  the  result  of  age-long  tradition 
and  century-old  cultivation,  can  do  the 
dweller  on  this  continent  no  more  good 
than  the  statues  which  the  Romans  stole 
from  Greece  could  impart  the  culture  of 
the  Greek  to  the  Romans.  And  yet  the 
culture  of  Europe  may  become  a  personal 
asset  of  every  American  who  is  awake  to 
the  glory  of  the  Old  World  art  and  litera- 
ture. Culture  is  not  tangible,  it  can  not 
be  bought  and  transported.  But  it  can 
enter  the  soul  and  the  life  of  the  indi- 
vidual who  with  awakened  eyes  beholds  it 
at  the  place  of  the  transfigurement. 

This  is  not  to  say  that  the  American 
people  are  wholly  devoid  of  sensibility  to 
the  finer  and  deeper  facts  of  life.  It  is 
to  say,  however — and  this  the  apprecia- 
tive traveler  in  Europe  notes — that  the 
pursuit  after  wealth  and  the  reaching  out 
70 


TRANSFIGURATION  AND  SLUMBER. 

after  material  influence  and  power  have 
been  unparalleled  on  these  shores  and  men 
have  come  to  believe  that  money  is  the 
main  thing  and  will  buy  anything  if  only 
the  price  offered  is  large  enough.  The 
fallacy  is  apparent.  A  man  asleep  would 
not  even  know  of  the  presence  of  the  paint- 
ing, much  less  appreciate  its  value.  And 
even  if  his  eyes  are  fully  opened,  but  his 
soul  slumbering,  he  could  not  respond  to 
its  call.  It  is  this  soul-slumber  into  which 
we,  as  a  people,  have  fallen  which  prevents 
us  from  beholding  the  glory  round  about 
us,  the  glory  which  is  the  manifestation  of 
the  Almighty. 

When  we  send  our  children  off  to  school 
the  tendency  is  to  ask.  How  much  better 
able  will  they  be  to  secure  to  themselves 
financial  gain  than  they  would  be  other- 
wise? Our  institutions  of  learning  can  not 
do  their  real  work  and  fit  men  and  women 
for  life  until  this  element  of  financial  re- 
turn is  removed  from  our  ideas  of  educa- 
tion. We  see  the  result  of  this  in  every 
71 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 

field  of  human  activity.  Tlie  cry  goes  up 
everywhere  that  our  colleges  are  not  fitting 
men  for  the  actual  duties  of  life,  but  only 
giving  them  the  facility  of  getting  the  best 
of  their  fellows.  Education  means  a  great 
deal  more  than  the  getting  together  of 
knowledge  and  the  making  the  hand  and 
mind  skillful.  Education  itself  is  a  trans- 
figuration. It  is  the  soul  of  the  Eternal 
manifesting  itself  before  the  souls  of  our 
youth.  They  must  be  awakened  to  the 
higher,  the  deeper  elements  of  education, 
so  that  the  transfiguration  will  be  real  to 
them  and  its  glory  manifest. 

As  we  have  already  suggested,  every 
kind  of  worthy  laborer  must  be  able  to  dis- 
cover the  fact  of  transfiguration.  Toil  in 
itself  must  be  related  to  the  activity  of  the 
eternal.  **My  Father  worketh  hitherto, 
and  I  work."  Only  as  the  Father  and  the 
Son  work  in  that  ever-present  desire  to 
bring  order  out  of  chaos,  clearness  out  of 
confusion,  truth  out  of  error,  and  right  out 
of  wrong,  can  this  old  world  progress,  and 
72 


TRANSFIGURATION  AND  SLUMBER. 

can  men  have  the  abiding  conviction  that 
this  world  is  good  and  life  in  it  worth 
while.  Not  for  one  single  moment  does  the 
Almighty  remove  His  hand  from  the  wheel. 
"V\niether  He  is  bringing  out  the  tadpole 
or  fashioning  the  lily  or  shaping  character, 
His  work  is  a  transfiguration.  To  wake 
men  up  so  that  they  can  see  their  own 
transfiguration  in  toil  and  labor,  so  that 
they  can  discover  the  real  service  to  man, 
which  they  by  their  labor  can  perform,  is 
the  great  need  of  to-day.  Art,  music,  lit- 
erature must  play  their  part  in  this  trans- 
figuration of  labor,  so  that  all  who  toil 
may  have  the  scales  cast  from  off  their 
eyes  and  be  brought  into  a  seeing  nearness 
of  the  Almighty. 

This  is  the  fact  of  the  transfiguration, 
and  if  men  will  open  their  eyes  they  will 
behold  it.  But  there  is  a  further  thought. 
The  transfiguration  is  not  only  a  fact,  it 
is  a  power.  It  changes,  and  the  change  is 
always  from  the  less  to  the  greater,  from 
the  lower  to  the  higher,  from  partial  to 
73 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 

complete,  from  error  to  trutli,  from  doubt 
to  belief.  So  great  is  its  power  that  if  men 
will  be  serious  they  will  be  awakened  from 
their  slumber.  The  eternal  can  not  be 
present  in  the  world  without  manifesting 
that  presence  through  transfiguration,  and 
the  transfiguration  can  not  continue  with- 
out waking  up  the  soul  of  man  if  that  soul 
is  controlled  by  sincerity  of  motive.  We 
often  have  our  dreams,  our  ideals,  our 
visions ;  and  suddenly,  before  we  are  aware 
of  it,  there  is  a  transfiguration  going  on 
before  us  and  we  behold  its  glory. 

"  When  love  dawned  on  that  world  which  is 
my  mind, 

Then  did  the  outer  world  wherein  I  went 

Suffer  a  sudden,  strange  transfigurement ; 

It  was  as  if  new  sight  were  given  the  blind. 

Then  where  the  shore  to  the  wide  sea  in- 
clined 

I  watched  with  new  eyes  the  new  sun*s 
ascent ; 

My  heart  was  stirred  within  me  as  I  leant 

And  listened  to  a  voice  in  every  wind." 


74 


TEANSFIGURATION  AND  SLUMBER. 

It  was  on  an  exceedingly  high  mountain 
that  the  Transfiguration  took  place.  It 
can  not  take  place  down  on  the  levels  of 
life.  We  must  get  away  from  our  lower 
natures  to  the  higher  reaches  of  the  soul  if 
we  would  behold  the  transfiguration.  We 
must  have  high  ideals,  true  purposes,  noble 
desires,  if  the  transfiguring  power  is  to 
transform  our  lives.  We  must  reach  out 
to  the  soul  of  the  eternal  if  our  own 
souls  are  to  be  imbued  with  the  power  of 
the  eternal.  The  disciples  were  compan- 
ioning with  the  Master  day  by  day  until 
the  time  came  when  He  took  them  up  on 
the  heights  and  was  transfigured  before 
them.  So  as  we  companion  with  goodness, 
with  the  better  things  of  life,  with  the 
higher  and  nobler  forces,  the  day  will  come 
when  they  will  take  us  up  to  the  heights 
of  our  being  and  become  transfigured  be- 
fore us.    We  shall  behold  their  glory. 

But  more  than  this,  we  can  walk  day 
by  day  with  the  Master  and  behold  His 
glory.  The  gospel  transfigured  before 
75 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 

sleeping  men;  this  is  the  sad  and  awfnl 
side  of  the  Transfiguration.  The  gospel 
transfigured  before  men  who  are  fully 
awake ;  this  is  the  significant  and  inspiring 
side  of  the  Transfiguration.  By  its  power 
men  are  charged  with  new  life  and  led  into 
the  world  to  do  His  work. 


76 


VII. 

HONEST  DIFFERING. 

There  was  an  honest  differing  among  the 
people  concerning  Jesus.  This  can  not  be 
said  of  the  rulers  and  leaders  of  the  Jews. 
These  had  already  made  up  their  minds  as 
to  Jesus'  work  and  worth,  and  their  opin- 
ion was  not  favorable  to  Him.  But  the 
people,  the  common  people,  who  had  seen 
and  heard  this  Prophet  from  Nazareth, 
were  divided  in  opinion  about  Him.  Some 
were  saying,  *  *  He  is  a  good  man. ' '  Others 
said,  **Not  so;  but  He  deceive th  the  peo- 
ple." 

This  fact  leads  us  to  note  that  in  all  great 
questions  there  is  a  difference  of  opinion. 
Not  out  of  unanimity,  but  out  of  diver- 
sity of  opinion,  have  peoples  advanced, 
nations  been  bom,  art,  literature,  science, 
the  crafts  been  fostered.  Around  one  cen- 
77 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 

tral  truth  surge  and  swell  counter-currents, 
throwing  themselves  at  each  other  at  times 
with  titanic  velocity,  only  to  be  finally 
drawn  into  the  main  channel  of  the  stream. 
The  tugging  and  straining  have  opened  the 
way  for  truth  to  sweep  onward  and  come 
into  its  own. 

Difference  of  opinion,  to  continue  the 
figure,  operates  as  a  sluice-gate  which 
holds  in  check  the  waters  coming  from 
widely  separated  sources  on  the  mountain 
of  life,  and  in  due  time  permits  this  com- 
bined force  to  flow  onward,  turning  the 
wheels  that  grind  out  and  shape  the  fin- 
ished product  of  thought.  Let  two  streams 
of  water  flow  down  the  mountain  side  from 
opposite  directions,  and  when  they  meet 
there  is  a  great  splashing  and  churning 
and  whipping  about,  and  much  froth  and 
foam.  But  further  down  you  see  these 
streams  as  one  flowing  on  peacefully,  with 
nothing  on  the  surface  to  indicate  conten- 
tion. The  froth  and  the  foam  as  well  as 
the  excitements  are  gone,  and  down  deep 
78 


HONEST  DIFFERING. 

beneath  is  a  steady  power  that  works  un- 
seen and  holds  in  the  leash  the  tides  of 
trade  and  commerce. 

When  two  counter-opinions  flow  down 
from  the  mountain  height  of  men's  minds 
and  meet  there  is  a  clash,  furious  and  seem- 
ingly irreconcilable,  and  there  is  also  much 
froth  and  foam.  But  later  on  all  this  sub- 
sides, men  learn  to  know  each  other,  and 
what  was  conflict  becomes  peace,  what  was 
confusion  and  destruction  a  quiet,  upbuild- 
ing power  that  makes  for  righteousness. 

Take  as  a  very  pertinent  illustration  the 
warfare  between  science  and  religion. 
This  was  so  fierce  but  a  few  years  ago  that 
it  seemed  prudent  for  one  of  our  brilliant 
scholars  to  set  down  in  two  large  volumes 
the  nature  of  this  fight.  To-day  he  who 
speaks  of  a  conflict  between  science  and 
religion  lives  in  a  past  age  and  must  be 
likened  to  the  Southerner  in  a  mountain 
fastness  who,  as  he  grew  older  and  needed 
assistance  to  till  his  small  piece  of  land, 
went  down,  not  very  long  ago,  to  Atlanta 
79 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 

to  buy  a  slave,  not  knowing  that  a  war  had 
been  fought  and  the  slaves  freed.  The 
struggle  between  science  and  religion  was 
a  civil  war,  a  fight  between  brother  and 
brother,  which,  if  the  eternal  powers  had 
not  been  in  control,  would  have  devastated 
the  fairest  land  on  which  the  sun  of  truth 
ever  shone.  Science,  to  change  the  figure, 
is  the  willing,  the  loving  handmaid  of  re- 
ligion, intended  by  the  Almighty  to  serve, 
yes,  and  to  obey  religion.  Heaven  itself 
has  blessed  this  union.  And  whom  God 
hath  joined  together,  let  no  man  put 
asunder. 

Honest  difference  of  opinion,  although  it 
means  conflict,  has  as  its  ultimate  result 
a  salutary  effect  and  develops  the  strong 
in  man  and  nations.  But  much  that  goes 
for  honest  opinion  is,  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
not  true  in  its  essentials.  It  is  the  off- 
spring of  pride  and  prejudice,  of  stubborn- 
ness and  misunderstanding.  Self-decep- 
tion is  the  commonest  of  all  deceptions  and 
the  easiest  to  accomplish.  And  where  per- 
80 


HONEST  DIFFERING. 

sons  are  self -deceived  their  opinions  are  to 
be  taken  with  a  great  deal  of  allowance. 

Take  the  matter  of  prejudice,  for  exam- 
ple. Prejudice  is  the  better  half  of  pride. 
Let  them  start  on  their  wedding  journey 
and  go,  we  will  say,  to  Europe.  They  are 
in  strange,  unusual  surroundings.  New 
faces  and  different  sounds  greet  them. 
Their  eyes  and  their  ears  are  open.  They 
are  intensely  interested  and  to  a  certain 
extent  charmed.  What  a  wonderful  coun- 
try they  are  in,  and  what  remarkable  peo- 
ple! But  soon  the  tendency  to  compare 
takes  hold  on  pride.  He  remembers  his 
own  country,  its  unlimited  resources,  its 
undaunted  enterprises,  its  snowy  mountain 
heights  of  shrewdness  and  skill,  where  with 
cool  and  clear  heads  the  greatest  questions 
of  state  and  trade  are  solved.  He  begins 
to  swell  with  joy;  his  patriotic  egotism 
knows  no  bounds;  there  is  no  country  on 
earth  so  great,  so  glorious,  as  his  own. 
And  then  the  hand  of  prejudice  softly 
steals  through  the  arm  of  pride,  and  off 
«  81 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 

they  go,  disapproving  the  temporarily 
adopted,  and  glorifying  their  native  land. 

This  is  not  an  allegory  merely.  It  is  also 
a  stem  fact,  and  deals  with  flesh  and  blood, 
men  and  women,  as  they  scamper  over 
Europe  on  sight-seeing  tours.  The  most 
worthless  of  all  opinions  concerning  for- 
eign countries  are  those  of  persons,  too 
often  belonging  to  the  professional  class, 
who,  having  merely  scoured  Europe,  un- 
dertake to  tell  all  about  it.  These  have  not 
got  over  the  pride  and  prejudice  stage.  It 
is  only  the  experienced  traveler  who,  not 
forgetting  his  own  country,  but,  because 
of  the  fact  that  he  remembers  it  so  well, 
is  able  properly  to  estimate  a  strange  land 
and  a  strange  people  and  give  both  their 
proper  desert.  And  he  is  always  the  true 
patriot,  loyal  to  his  own  country. 

The  havoc  pride  and  prejudice  play  in 
our  common  daily  affairs,  unfitting  us  com- 
pletely at  times  for  worthy  judgments, 
needs  only  a  suggestion  to  be  appreciated. 

So  too  with  stubbornness  and  misunder- 
&2 


HONEST  DIFFERING. 

standing;  these  are  not  found  yoked  to- 
gether so  often  as  pride  and  prejudice. 
But,  like  many  another  ill-starred  mar- 
riage, we  find  stubbornness  and  misunder- 
standing now  and  then  joined  in  unholy 
wedlock.  One  of  the  very  painful  incidents 
of  the  Protestant  Reformation  was  the  dis- 
pute between  Luther  and  Zwingli  over  the 
sacrament  of  the  Lord's  Supper.  Neither 
understood  the  other.  Added  to  this  was 
the  unyielding  stand  taken  by  Luther, 
which  made  him  appear  so  other  than  as 
his  true  self.  History  is  full  of  such  inci- 
dents: a  dogged  determination  to  hold 
one's  ground  when  that  ground  is  falsely 
taken.  Standing  in  the  very  roadway  of 
civilization,  men  have  stopped  for  dispu- 
tation, blocking  the  way  with  their  argu- 
ments, making  it  exceedingly  difficult  or 
even  impossible  for  those  who  had  a  right 
to  the  road  to  pass.  The  opinions  of  a 
stubborn  man  or  a  man  who  jumps  at  con- 
clusions are  usually  to  be  taken  with  great 
care.  Because  the  Athenians  misunder- 
83 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 

stood  Socrates  they  condemned  him  to 
drink  the  fatal  hemlock ;  because  the  Jews 
stubbornly  resisted  the  gentle  but  persua- 
sive power  of  Jesus  they  caused  Him  to 
be  nailed  to  a  cross. 

"What  we  believe  colors  our  life.  We 
have  no  portraits  of  the  men  who  stood 
about  Jesus,  and  no  minute  description  of 
them.  But  could  a  discerning  reader  of 
character  have  before  him  their  pictures, 
he  would  be  able  to  point  out  those  who 
said  of  Jesus,  '*He  is  a  good  man,''  and 
those  who  said,  **Not  so;  but  He  leadeth 
the  multitude  astray."  Although  both 
classes  might  have  been  honest  in  their 
opinions,  and  we  believe  they  were,  yet 
there  was  something  in  the  character  of 
each  that  made  them  incline  one  way  or 
the  other.  A  vine  in  a  dark  cellar,  with 
only  a  tiny  ray  of  light  entering  in,  will 
turn,  in  spite  of  the  darkness,  to  the  light. 
So  will  the  intuition  of  a  righteous  man 
lead  him  toward  the  truth  in  spite  of  doubt 
and  darkness.    An  artist  who  had  lived 

84: 


HONEST  DIFFERING. 

all  his  life  in  a  provincial  town  and  seen 
only  the  mediocre  work  of  ordinary  artists 
would  have  certain  opinions  on  art,  and 
he  would  be  honest  in  them.  And  he  might 
take  serious  issue  with  another  man  who 
had  feasted  his  eyes  on  the  masterpieces, 
bathing  his  soul  in  their  inspiring  depths. 
Here  would  be  an  honest  difference  of 
opinion.  But  how  other  it  would  have  been 
had  our  provincial  artist  also  sat  at  the 
feet  of  the  great  painters. 

We  can  become  set  in  our  own  ideas  and 
ideals,  form  honest  opinions,  and  yet  not 
know  that  those  opinions  are  of  very  little 
significance.  It  is  a  travesty  of  art  to  call 
a  man  an  artist  who  has  never  been  in  the 
company  6f  the  great  artists,  living  and 
dead.  The  very  name  he  assumes  implies 
that  he  is  familiar  with  the  highest  in  his 
profession  or  is  striving  for  that  famili- 
arity. It  is  a  travesty  of  life  to  say  that 
we  are  living,  and  yet  continue  to  remain 
on  the  lower  levels.  The  very  term  * '  life ' ' 
implies  the  fullest  and  strongest  capacity 
85 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 

to  reacli  onward  and  upward.  One  who 
has  not  companioned  with  Jesus,  therefore, 
has  no  right  to  speak  intimately  of  Him. 
His  judgment  will  be  superficial.  Even 
the  remark,  ^^He  is  a  good  man,''  may  be 
a  hasty  conclusion.  If  it  be  no  more  than 
mere  assent  to  the  opinion  of  others,  it 
can  carry  no  weight  of  personal  experi- 
enca  And  no  one  can  pass  judgment  on 
the  claims  or  the  worth  of  Jesus  who  has 
not  come  into  personal  touch  with  Him. 
The  testimony  of  a  man  who  grew  old  in 
well-doing  as  he  closely  related  his  life 
to  the  life  and  teaching  of  Jesus,  will  be 
quite  di:fferent  from  that  of  a  man  who 
lived  honestly  and  decently  enough  all  his 
life,  but  who  was  indifferent  to  the  higher 
ideals.  The  opinions  of  the  latter  as  well 
as  of  the  former  can  be  regarded  as  honest, 
but  the  difference  will  be  that  between  the 
light  of  a  candle  and  the  light  of  the  sun. 
The  one  will  reach  a  limited  radius,  the 
other  will  flood  the  world.  The  one  will 
be  a  wick,  which,  to  bum,  must  be  lighted. 
86 


HONEST  DIFFERING. 

The  other  will  be  the  perpetual  source  of 
all  light. 

Some  said,  *^He  is  a  good  man;"  others 
said,  **Not  so;  but  He  leadeth  the  multi- 
tude astray."  Suppose  these  men  had 
gone  direct  to  Jesus  and  become  acquainted 
with  Him;  suppose  they  had  laid  aside 
their  Jewish  pride  of  a  kingly  ancestry 
that  had  ruled  on  the  throne  of  David; 
their  Jerusalem  prejudice  against  Naza- 
reth and  all  that  came  out  of  it ;  their  stub- 
bornness to  accept  any  one  as  the  desired 
Savior  unless  He  came  in  regal  splendor 
and  warlike  pomp,  and,  therefore,  their 
mistaken  attitude  of  the  real  person  and 
mission  of  Jesus,  and  had  sat  at  His  feet 
and  learned  of  Him, — ^would  their  opinions 
about  Him  have  differed?  He  who  could 
speak  but  a  few  words  to  Nicodemus,  the 
master  in  Israel,  and  send  him  away  with 
such  burning  thoughts  that  his  soul  was 
afterward  warmed  into  pure  and  clear  af- 
fection and  devotion  toward  Him;  who 
could  speak  to  the  rich  young  ruler  and 
87 


SPIEITUAL  VALUES. 

send  him  away  with  true  insight  into  life's 
real  duties  and  obligations ;  who  could  an- 
swer the  lawyers  so  truly  that  they  must 
admit  the  supremacy  of  His  wisdom,  and 
the  doctors  so  shrewdly  that  none  dare  ask 
Him  any  more  questions;  who  spoke  so 
tenderly,  so  persuasively,  that  the  officers 
who  were  sent  to  take  Him  returned  empty- 
handed  and  with  the  one  justification  of 
the  failure  of  their  mission,  **  Never  man 
spake  as  this  Man;"  who  could  say  to 
the  unfortunate  woman,  **  Neither  do  I 
condemn  thee:  go  and  sin  no  more;" 
who  could  say  to  the  paralytic,  **Son, 
thy  sins  be  forgiven  thee;  take  up  thy 
bed  and  walk;"  who  looked  upon  the 
people  following  Him  as  sheep  without 
a  shepherd  and  said,  **Come  unto  Me  all 
ye  that  labor  and  are  heavy  laden,  and  I 
will  give  you  rest,"  and  upon  Jerusalem 
and  the  men  who  were  plotting  against 
Him,  saying,  **How  often  would  I  have 
gathered  thy  children  together,  even  as  a 
hen  gathereth  her  chickens  under  her 
88 


HONEST  DIFFERING. 

wings,  but  ye  would  not;"  yes,  He  who 
could  say,  with  crimson  perspiration  cours- 
ing down  His  brow,  ''Father,  not  My  will, 
but  Thine  be  done;"  who  could  stand  silent 
when  He  was  insulted  and  spit  upon  and 
spitefully  accused;  who  even  in  death's 
agony  remembered  to  groan  out  the  words, 
''Father,  forgive  them,  for  they  know  not 
what  they  do, ' ' — could  He  not  have  spoken 
a  conclusive  word  to  those  who  were  doubt- 
ful concerning  His  character! 

This  picture  of  men  passing  their  judg- 
ments upon  Jesus  is  the  picture  of  Jesus 
standing  in  the  arena  of  the  world's 
thought.  All  minds  come  to  Him.  We  can 
say  that  the  opinions  of  the  serious  are 
honest.  But  we  would  look  beyond  the 
scene  of  this  picture  to  another  and  see 
the  company  broken  up,  each  going  the  way 
of  his  choosing.  Some  of  them  are  minded 
to  follow  Jesus,  as  the  two  disciples  did, 
and  ask  Him,  "Where  dwellest  Thou?" 
And  He  says, '  *  Come  and  see ! ' '  They  who 
leave  off  discussing  about  Jesus  and  go 
89 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 

to  live  with  Him  are  alone  entitled  to  pass 
judgment  on  Him.  And  they  will  place 
Him  not  only  in  the  class  of  **good  men/' 
but  in  the  uniqueness  of  the  One  Good  Man, 
construing  at  its  full  face  value  the  remark 
of  Jesus  Himself,  **None  is  good,  save  One, 
that  is  God.'' 


90 


vm. 

HIDING  FROM  JESUS. 

Zacch^us,  we  read  was  a  man  of  small 
stature  trying  to  see  Jesus.  The  incident 
is  an  interesting  one.  As  we  study  it,  we 
are  led  to  conclude  that  he  was  prevented 
from  seeing  Jesus  not  so  much  because  of 
a  physical  smallness  of  stature,  but  be- 
cause of  a  lowness  of  spiritual  reach. 

Here  was  a  man  prominent  both  on  ac- 
count of  his  riches  and  of  his  position.  He 
was  the  tax  commissioner  of  Jericho,  and 
would  not  have  been  seen  pushing  in  the 
street  crowd  to  see  Jesus.  Had  he  really 
wanted  to  come  near,  the  crowd  would  not 
have  been  an  obstacle.  He  surely  was  as 
strong  as  the  woman  sick  for  many  years, 
who  pushed  through  as  great  a  crowd  of 
men  as  ever  thronged  the  Master.  Then, 
too,  had  he  merely  wanted  to  see  Jesus, 
he  could  have  secured  a  place  in  one  of  the 
91 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 

windows  or  on  a  housetop,  where  he  could 
have  seen  Jesus  with  ease  and  clearness. 

But  he  ran  ahead  of  the  crowd  and 
climbed  a  tree.  This  seems  a  most  unusual 
proceeding  for  a  rich  man  and  the  chief 
of  the  tax-gatherers,  until  we  note  what 
kind  of  a  tree  he  climbed.  It  was  a  syca- 
more tree,  the  tree  of  low,  thick,  spreading 
branches  and  broad  leaves;  the  tree  which 
has  always  been  noted  in  the  Orient  for  its 
dense  foliage  and  heavy  shade.  In  this 
tree  Zacchaeus  hoped  to  screen  himself 
from  Jesus.  He  counted  on  the  excitement 
down  in  the  road,  with  all  eyes  centered  on 
Jesus,  to  keep  the  eyes  of  any  from  turning 
upon  him.  He  wanted  to  see  Jesus,  but 
he  did  not  want  to  be  seen.  He  did  not 
dare  to  trust  himself  to  the  gaze  of  the 
Master.  For  had  he  not  heard  about  Mat- 
thew, Matthew  the  publican,  whom  Jesus 
saw  and  called  to  be  one  of  His  disciples? 
Might  Jesus  not  also  call  Zacchaeus?  And 
could  he  withstand  the  call?  Or,  even  if 
Jesus  did  not  call  him,  might  He  not  say 
92 


HIDING  FROM  JESUS 

to  him  what  He  said  to  the  rich  young 
ruler,  *  *  One  thing  thou  lackest ;  sell  all  that 
thou  hast  and  give  to  the  poor,  and  come 
follow  Mef  Zacchaeus  was  not  ready  to 
do  that,  even  to  be  saved.  He  did  not  want 
to  have  any  of  these  embarrassing  things 
said  to  him.  Yet  he  wanted  to  see  Jesus. 
There  was  something  peculiarly  attractive 
in  this  Man,  whose  fame  had  gone  all 
abroad. 

Here  is  a  type  of  man  we  find  every- 
where. How  many  are  there  who  are  suffi- 
ciently interested  in  Jesus  to  put  them- 
selves to  some  inconvenience  to  see  Him, 
and  yet  who  do  not  wish  to  be  seen  by  Him ! 
They  are  men  of  small  stature  spiritually. 
They  are  neither  large  enough  to  look  at 
Jesus  from  the  level,  nor  strong  enough  to 
secure  a  position  near  Him  and  maintain 
it,  in  spite  of  all  forces  that  would  draw 
them  away. 

Here  are  the  men  of  business.  Many  of 
these  are  immensely  wealthy  or  control 
great  resources  of  wealth ;  all  of  them  are 
93 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 

striving  after  this  world's  goods.  Few 
ever  reacli  the  point  where  they  conclude 
they  have  a  sufficiency.  Now,  the  princi- 
ples of  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  are  as 
well  known  to  them  as  was  Jesus  to  Zac- 
chsBus.  And  a  great  interest  attaches  to 
this  teaching.  It  is  surprising  how  numer- 
ous are  the  books  and  magazine  articles 
and  popular  lectures  on  subjects  which  deal 
directly  with  the  message  Jesus  delivered. 
A  journalist  who  reads  some  fifty  news- 
papers every  day  says  the  amount  of  space, 
both  in  editorials  and  contributed  matter, 
devoted  to  subjects  that  deal  with  ethics 
and  higher  moral  standards  is  remarkably 
large.  And  the  inspiration  of  these  ar- 
ticles is  had  from  the  teaching  of  Jesus. 
He  is  the  dominant  force  in  the  higher  life 
of  to-day.  An  intense  interest  is  mani- 
fested in  Him.  Men  want  to  see  Him,  who 
He  is.  But  they  are  afraid  to  come  direct 
to  Him.  They  know  Him  well  enough  to 
feel  His  magnetic  power.  But  they  do  not 
want  to  be  drawn  too  close  to  Him.  He 
94 


HIDING  FROM  JESUS 

may  ask  them  some  embarrassing  ques- 
tions. Or  His  very  silence  as  He  looks 
upon  them  may  be  vocal  with  reproach. 

So  their  interest  in  Jesus  is  that  of  the 
passive  onlooker.  It  is  the  interest  that 
would  ask  for  information,  but  which 
would  balk  at  acting  upon  it  if  any  dis- 
agreeable demands  were  made. 

There  are  rich  men  in  every  community 
who  fall  short  of  their  possible  usefulness 
simply  because  they  will  not  interest  them- 
selves in  Jesus  actively.  There  are  busi- 
ness men  who  only  half-heartedly  support 
the  institutions  for  righteousness  because 
they  can  not  cut  loose  from  the  current  of 
business  practices.  They  are  afraid  of 
the  teaching  of  Jesus.  They  know  its  grip- 
ping power.  They  are  candid  men  and 
honest,  the  men  often  who  most  truly  rep- 
resent the  community.  They  appreciate 
the  straight-forward,  unrelenting  charac- 
terization of  right  and  wrong  as  it  fell 
from  Jesus '  lips.  They  know  only  too  well 
that,  did  they  let  Jesus'  teaching  really 
95 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 

take  hold  on  their  lives,  it  would  mean  a 
readjustment  of  their  practices.  They  are 
controlled  by  the  current  business  stand- 
ards and  methods.  They  must  bow  before 
the  fetish  of  competition.  **  Business  is 
business.''  '*Let  him  get  who  can,  and 
keep  who  is  able."  We  recognize  to  the 
fullest  extent  the  difficulties  which  beset 
the  business  man  in  this  terrible  tug  and 
strain  of  competition.  And  we  also  recog- 
nize that  the  standards  are  higher  to-day 
than  yesterday,  and  that  to-morrow  is 
golden  with  the  hope  of  a  still  higher 
standard.  But  in  the  present  there  is  en- 
tirely too  much  hiding  from  Jesus.  The 
desire  for  commercial  and  financial  gain 
is  deeper  and  more  controlling  than  any 
other.  Men  seemingly  must  overreach 
their  competitors  or  those  from  whom  they 
draw  their  income.  They  can  not  do  this 
and  at  the  same  time  subscribe  to  Jesus' 
creed  of  honesty  and  square  dealing.  So 
they  climb  up  into  their  sycamore  trees  to 
be  mere  onlookers  while  Jesus  passes. 
96 


HIDING  FROM  JESUS 

There  is  another  class  which  sets  itself 
up  against  the  evils  which  come  through  an 
inordinate  desire  to  amass  wealth  and  the 
evils  which  come  from  ignorance  and  pov- 
erty among  the  masses.  There  are  social 
workers,  for  example,  who  set  themselves 
in  earnest  toward  the  amelioration  of  evil 
and  unfavorable  conditions.  But  they  lay 
emphasis  upon  character  rather  than  re- 
ligion. Now,  we  are  not  in  favor  of  prose- 
lyting and  evangelizing  among  the  masses 
as  the  sole  end  of  their  betterment.  A 
piece  of  bread  and  butter  is  worth  infinitely 
more  to  a  poor  and  helpless  man  than  a 
whole  bundle  of  tracts ;  and  to  put  a  man 
on  his  feet  and  enable  him  to  work  with 
his  hands  and  his  head  is  worth  infinitely 
more  than  merely  to  preach  to  him  the  sav- 
ing power  of  the  gospel.  And  yet,  if  there 
is  to  be  any  character,  the  soil  of  religion 
must  be  tilled  and  sown.  And  it  were  idle 
for  us  to  argue  that  the  teaching  of  Jesus 
is  the  best  seed  for  religious  growth.  This 
fact  is  generally  admitted,  but  not  in  an 
97 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 

open  and  direct  way.  Rather  do  we  find 
much  of  the  work  which  is  done  in  the 
name  of  Jesns  credited  to  some  other  in- 
fluence. Scant  acknowledgment  is  given 
to  His  principles.  It  would  seem  at  times 
that  some  of  the  leaders  in  this  work  would 
take  their  lessons  from  the  Man  of  Naza- 
reth as  He  passes  by,  but  not  let  others 
know  they  have  even  seen  Him. 

So,  too,  with  many  of  the  lectures  on 
culture  and  the  humanities.  We  find  the 
rule  of  conduct  they  lay  down  drawn  from 
the  very  heart  of  Jesus '  words.  We  have 
read  treatises  on  ethics  and  morals  in 
which  the  name  of  Jesus  is  not  mentioned, 
and  no  recognition  whatever  of  His  stu- 
pendous force  in  the  progress  of  civiliza- 
tion. And  yet  there  are  passages  in  the 
books  so  like  the  teaching  of  Jesus  that 
their  authors  would  be  guilty  of  plagi- 
arism if  it  were  possible  to  plagiarize 
Jesus'  words.  These  men  would  consider 
it  poor  taste  to  acknowledge  frankly  their 
indebtedness.  For  there  are  some  de- 
98 


HIDING  FROM  JESUS 

mands  Jesus  would  make  upon  them  which 
would  modify  their  teaching  or  even  take 
away  the  seeming  originality  thereof. 
What  a  work  there  remains  to  be  done  by 
these  very  men  in  recognizing  the  Master ! 
They  could  speak  with  authority  equal  to 
that  of  the  Church. 

They  could  help  powerfully,  did  they 
come  down  out  of  their  sycamore  trees,  to 
give  the  Church  of  Christ  the  influence  it 
ought  to  have  to-day  in  meeting  the  great 
problems  that  are  before  it. 

Then  there  is  another  class  of  small 
persons  spiritually  who  would  look  at 
Jesus  from  concealment.  They  are  in  the 
Church  itself.  They  saw  Jesus  face  to 
face,  and  began  to  walk  with  Him;  yes, 
who  even  now  are  ranked  among  His  fol- 
lowers. They  know  Him  only  too  well  and 
are  familiar  with  what  He  asks  of  them. 
They  come  under  the  Savior's  exclamation, 
**Why  call  ye  Me  Lord,  Lord,  and  do  not 
the  things  I  say  unto  you!"  They  want 
to  see  Jesus,  but  they  dare  not  come  out 
99 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 

into  the  open.  They  are  God's  people  in 
God's  Church.  They  hide  themselves, 
however,  when  Jesus  passes  by. 

A  Church,  like  everything  else,  in  order 
to  exist,  needs  support.  Yet  there  is  no  in- 
stitution less  heartily  supported  by  its  ad- 
herents than  the  Christian  Church.  There 
are  men  and  women  in  large  numbers  who 
want  the  benefits  of  Church  affiliations,  but 
who  refrain  from  identifying  themselves 
actively  with  the  work  or  from  assuming 
responsibility.  If  there  were  no  other  rea- 
son for  the  Church 's  existence,  there  is  one 
that  is  all-sufficient.  That  is  the  fellowship 
it  offers.  We  need  friends,  and  we  need 
fellowship.  One  of  our  most  eminent  psy- 
chologists has  said  that  definite  ethical  in- 
struction is  quite  unimportant  as  compared 
with  the  subtle  influence  of  another  per- 
sonality at  the  critical  moment.  The  at- 
mosphere of  this  influence  is  generated  in 
every  meeting  of  people,  whether  social, 
political,  business,  or  religious.  But  it  is 
the  business  of  the  Church  to  create  such 
100 


HIDING  FROM  JESUS 

an  atmospliere.  And  it  meets  all  its  de- 
mands. Where  a  number  of  men  and 
women  are  banded  together  for  no  other 
purpose  but  spiritual  uplift,  a  fellowship 
results  which  is  inestimable  in  its  influ- 
ences. And  when  we  say  this  we  are  not 
unmindful  of  the  fact  that  the  Church  is 
not  a  perfect  institution  and  that  every 
communicant  has  not  attained  to  fullness 
of  true  manhood. 

The  Church  as  such  needs  to  be  sup- 
ported morally  as  well  as  financially.  But 
too  often  do  we  find  avenues  in  our 
Churches  lined  on  both  sides  with  syca- 
more trees  in  which  sit  many  a  Zacchaeus 
in  his  cool  shade,  looking  down  upon  the 
hot  and  dusty  road  and  on  Jesus  and  His 
few  laboring  disciples.  The  place  where 
every  member  of  the  Church  needs  to  be 
is  not  on  some  vantage  point,  looking  on, 
but  down  in  the  road,  however  hot  and 
dusty  it  may  be,  toiling  with  Jesus  as  He 
mounts  the  steeps  to  Jerusalem. 

Jesus  saw  Zacchaeus.  Whether  His  at- 
101 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 

tention  was  called  to  Mm  by  another  or 
wlietlier  His  eye  penetrated  the  foliage,  is 
immaterial.  Jesus  saw  him,  for  it  is  as 
impossible  to  hide  anything  from  Jesus 
as  to  veil  the  sun.  This  has  ever  been  the 
power  of  the  gospel.  It  finds  people  even 
when  they  are  hiding  from  it.  The  psalm- 
ist sensed  this  ever-present  Spirit  of  God 
and  phrased  it  in  words  which  shall  never 
be  forgotten.  **  Whither  shall  I  go  from 
Thy  Spirit,  or  whither  shall  I  flee  from 
Thy  presence  ?  If  I  ascend  up  into  heaven, 
Thou  art  there ;  if  I  make  my  bed  in  sheol, 
behold.  Thou  art  there.  If  I  take  the  wings 
of  the  morning  and  dwell  in  the  uttermost 
part  of  the  sea,  even  there  shall  Thy  hand 
lead  me  and  Thy  right  hand  hold  me.'' 
The  gospel  spirit  is  in  the  heights  above 
and  the  depths  beneath  and  at  the  utmost 
reach  of  the  horizon.  The  winds  are  not 
swift  enough  to  outrun  its  messengers,  nor 
the  darkness  black  enough  to  hide  its  light. 
ZacchaBus  was  as  open  before  Jesus '  gaze 
as  though  he  had  been  standing  near. 
102 


HIDING  FROM  JESUS 

There  is  no  shade  behind  which  we  can  hide 
to-day  from  the  Nazarene  Peasant.  He 
has  been  the  most  potent  heart-searching 
factor  in  the  world  for  the  last  eighteen 
hundred  years.  We  deceive  ourselves 
greatly  if  we  think  we  can  be  mere  passive 
onlookers  as  He  passes  by.  He  sees  us  and 
calls  us  just  as  He  saw  and  called  ZacchsBus. 
The  only  question  is  whether  we  will  re- 
spond to  His  call.  Zacchaeus  might  have 
remained  in  the  tree,  or,  letting  himself 
down,  might  have  slunk  away.  But  a 
change  came  over  him  as  Jesus  ap- 
proached. And  when  Jesus  called  he  made 
haste  and  came  down  and  received  Him 
joyfully.  *  *  I  have  need  of  you,  Zacchaeus, ' ' 
Jesus  said;  **you  can  be  of  great  service 
to  Me.  I  must  spend  the  night  with  you." 
From  a  passive  onlooker,  ZacchaBus,  by  the 
manhood  in  him  which  Jesus  could  touch, 
became  an  active  adherent.  More  than 
this.  That  day  salvation  came  to  his  soul. 
For  he  took  Jesus  into  his  home. 


103 


IX. 

IN  SIGHT  OF  THE  PEOMISED  LAND. 

A  WOMAN  of  discernment  said,  **I  never 
want  to  teach  the  lesson  of  Moses  barred 
out  of  the  promised  land.  It  seems  so  un- 
fair. The  Children  of  Israel  were  ever- 
lastingly dissatisfied  with  him,  and  he  did 
the  very  best  he  could  with  them.  Yet  they 
were  allowed  to  cross  over,  and  he  was 
forced  to  remain  behind.'' 

The  words  spoken  to  Moses  do  seem  to 
be  a  very  harsh  judgment.  After  all  his 
toils  and  struggles,  his  hopes  and  disap- 
pointments, forty  long  years  of  anxiety  and 
anticipation,  right  in  sight  of  his  journey's 
end,  Jehovah  tells  him  he  shall  see  the 
Promised  Land,  but  may  not  enter  into  it. 
Why  Moses  should  not  reap  the  fruit  of 
his  toil  is  hard  for  us  to  understand.  The 
104 


IN  SIGHT  OF  PEOMISED  LAND. 

judgment  upon  him,  however,  is  the  judg- 
ment of  life  upon  humankind. 

Let  us  note  that  Moses  was  not  only  a 
great  man,  he  was  a  good  man.  He  was 
the  only  available  man  God  had  to  lead  the 
Israelites  out  of  the  slavery  of  Egypt  into 
the  mastery  of  Palestine.  "We  are  told, 
nevertheless,  that  he  was  debarred  from 
entering  in  because  in  moments  of  weak- 
ness he  trespassed  against  God.  The  weak 
spots  in  Moses'  life  were  to  count  more 
against  him  than  all  his  strength  was  to 
count  for  him.  There  is  a  trite  saying  that 
a  chain  is  no  stronger  than  its  weakest  link. 
It  would  appear  to  be  a  most  unwarranted 
conclusion  to  say  that  one  weak  tendency 
in  man  or  one  single  failure  at  a  time  when 
much  depended  thereon  was  to  be  the  indi- 
cator of  his  real  strength  and  usefulness. 
But  this  is  the  law  we  have  before  us  in 
the  incident  of  Moses.  It  is  a  law  that 
should  cause  us  to  ponder  deeply. 

If  we  look  into  the  world  we  see  men  by 
the  score  who  came  to  the  very  borders  of 
105 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 

the  promised  land,  but  were  hindered  from 
entering  in.  Men  of  good  parts,  men  of 
much  promise  in  youth  or  even  in  middle 
age,  men  who  seem  even  now  to  be  carry- 
ing the  real  work  of  the  world,  have  failed 
of  their  journey's  end.  By  mathematical 
computation  our  engineers  can  tell  us  how 
strong  a  beam  or  a  girder  must  be  to  bear 
a  certain  weight.  Those  who  do  business 
in  the  tall  building  or  who  ride  on  trains 
over  the  deep  chasm  can  do  so  with  abso- 
lute safety.  They  know  the  strength  of 
the  building  or  bridge  is  sufficient  to  carry 
the  weight  laid  upon  it.  We  have  no  such 
means  of  computing  the  strength  of  a 
human  being.  While  we  can  make  approxi- 
mations, we  can  come  to  no  exact  figures. 
How  much  physical,  mental,  moral,  or  even 
spiritual  strain  individual  men  can  bear  is 
an  unknown  quantity. 

Worse  than  this,  there  is  a  tendency  on 

the  part  of  human  nature  to  resist  any 

actual  computation  in  this  regard.     The 

young  man  will  not  listen  very  attentively 

106 


IN  SIGHT  OF  PROMISED  LAND. 

when  problems  of  physical  strain  are 
placed  before  him.  He  is  living  in  the 
present;  he  has  the  assurance  that  his 
strength  is  sufficient  for  his  needs.  Or,  if 
he  has  indications  that  this  is  not  the  case, 
he  is  inclined  to  be  indifferent,  and  will 
not  listen  to  admonition.  He  is  perfectly 
ready  to  run  his  train  of  life  over  a  phys- 
ical bridge  not  strong  enough  to  support 
it.  Many  a  young  man,  therefore,  comes 
to  the  very  verge  of  the  promised  land  of 
life  and  is  told  he  can  not  enter  in. 

The  task  of  parents  and  teachers  to  en- 
list youth  in  the  arithmetic  of  physical 
strain  is  a  fearful  one.  Young  men  and 
women  do  not  seem  to  care  whether  they 
make  their  life-calculations  accurately.  It 
seems  to  matter  little  how  much  informa- 
tion we  have  on  the  subject  or  how  care- 
fully our  physicians  are  able  to  point  out 
the  source  of  future  weakness.  Knowledge 
of  this  sort  does  not  represent  a  present 
quantity.  The  element  of  chance  enters  in 
to  such  an  extent  as  to  lead  many  a  youth 

107 


SPIEITUAL  VALUES. 

to  feel  that  he  may  be  able  to  override  the 
law  of  nature  and  win  out  in  the  end.  The 
future  is  too  far  ahead,  and  years,  as  one 
looks  forward,  will  pass  too  slowly  to  in- 
duce young  manhood  to  guard  against  the 
weakening  effects  which  the  ordinary 
strain  and  toil  of  life  bring.  And  so  there 
are  middle-aged  and  older  men  who  hover 
around  the  border  of  the  promised  land 
and  who  have  heard  unmistakably  the  ver- 
dict that  they  may  not  enter  in,  because 
they  trespassed  against  the  law  of  physical 
endurance. 

So  in  the  realm  of  mental  activity.  He 
who  sins  against  mental  strength  will  be 
debarred  from  entering  the  promised  land. 
Some  of  the  saddest  wrecks  that  human 
life  makes  are  the  wrecks  of  the  broken 
mind,  of  the  intellect  that  can  not  carry  the 
day's  strain  and  toil.  Even  where  there 
is  no  complete  breakdown  of  mental  tissue, 
and  man  is  able  to  think  on  the  great  prob- 
lems before  him,  there  is  the  inability  for 
hard,  sustained,  penetrative  thought.  The 
108 


IN  SIGHT  OF  PROMISED  LAND. 

mind  can  not  go  the  full  length ;  it  can  not 
cross  over  into  the  promised  land ;  it  must 
stand  aside  and  see  others  marching  on. 
The  confusion  of  voices  we  have  in  polit- 
ical, educational,  ecclesiastical,  and  busi- 
ness life  to-day,  as  always,  arises  from 
the  inability  of  men  to  think  themselves 
through  to  a  satisfying  conclusion.  There 
is  a  babel  of  sounds,  but  few  distinct  voices. 
The  race  is  not  trained  to  think;  it  is  too 
slow  a  process.  We  would  get  on.  We 
jump  at  conclusions,  and  when  we  arrive 
at  the  border  of  the  promised  land  we  are 
halted,  and  may  not  cross  over,  for  our 
mental  mechanism  is  not  adequate  for  the 
burden  over  yonder. 

The  law  of  overstrain  which  brings  to  us 
the  gravest  concern  is  that  in  the  moral  and 
spiritual  realm.  Here  we  are  absolutely 
unable  to  make  any  satisfactory  calcula- 
tions as  to  how  strong  the  moral  and  spir- 
itual foundations  of  man  must  be  in  order 
to  carry  the  full  weight  of  the  strain  which 
will  be  placed  upon  them.  There  are  moral 
109 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 

wrecks,  of  course,  and  spiritual  wrecks, 
men  and  women  who  are  dropped  behind 
in  the  wilderness  and  who  never  come  even 
within  sight  of  the  promised  land.  These 
cases  are  as  sad  as  they  seem  to  be  hope- 
less. For  the  train  of  humanity  marches 
on,  counting  them  out  of  the  race. 

Even  the  larger  portion  of  those  who 
come  to  the  very  border  of  the  promised 
land  have  not  trained  the  susceptibilities  of 
the  soul  and,  therefore,  have  no  eyes  that 
look  inward  to  the  deeper  meanings  in  man 
and  nature.  We  are  told  that  all  men  are 
bom  color-blind,  that  even  he  who  is  most 
susceptible  to  the  shades  and  harmonies  of 
color  can  not  see  one  quarter  of  the  colors 
which  are  known  to  exist  in  nature.  Color- 
sight  must  be  cultivated  just  as  all  things 
in  life  worth  while.  He  who  would  catch 
the  tints  of  nature  must  go  the  whole  way 
of  preparatory  training.  So,  too,  must  the 
SBsthetic,  the  moral,  the  religious  sense  be 
cultivated.  And  not  only  is  it  sufficient  to 
have  these  senses  under  culture ;  it  is  nec- 
110 


IN  SIGHT  OF  PEOMISED  LAND. 

essary  to  keep  them  quick  and  responsive. 
We  know  that  men  who  in  early  life  have 
had  susceptibilities  for  the  finer  capacities 
have  permitted  these  to  fall  into  decay  be- 
cause of  disuse,  and  the  harmonious  strain 
of  music  or  the  beauty  in  form  and  color 
have  no  meaning  to  them.  They  come  to 
the  promised  land  of  life  and  are  not  able 
to  enter  in.  The  sadness  that  results  in 
such  cases  is  shown  by  the  lines  noted  men 
have  written.  When  they  listened  to  music 
they  could  catch  no  thrill ;  when  they  read 
poetry  they  felt  no  throb ;  when  they  looked 
at  the  painting  they  had  no  inspiration. 
*Thou  shalt  not  enter  in,"  is  the  word  they 
heard.  And  it  comes  in  the  gloom  and 
desolation  which  can  neither  be  penetrated 
nor  dispelled. 

Or  men  have  allowed  the  cares  of  the 
world  to  press  upon  them  to  crowd  out  the 
better  self,  to  deaden  the  instinct  which 
makes  for  religion  and  spirituality.  They 
come  in  their  journey  where  they  are  un- 
able to  enter  with  any  feeling  of  satisf ac- 
111 


SPIEITUAL  VALUES. 

tion  into  the  great  religious  problems  or 
spiritual  solaces.  They  are  not  at  home; 
they  do  not  belong  in  these  realms ;  seem- 
ingly they  get  along  fairly  well  and  can 
hold  themselves  on  the  other  side  of  the 
border  with  satisfaction  and  equanimity. 
Nevertheless  there  is  something  lacking. 
The  way  in  which  men  to-day  look  for  sub- 
stitutes for  the  simple  religion  of  Jesus 
Christ,  the  way  in  which  they  will  grasp 
at  every  wind  of  strange  doctrine  that 
blows,  the  way  in  which  they  will  submit 
themselves  to  religious  theories  that  have 
no  foundation  in  fact,  indicate  only  too  un- 
mistakably the  presence  of  spiritual  unrest 
and  discontent. 

Man  belongs  in  the  promised  land  of  re- 
ligion and  spiritual  truth ;  it  is  the  purpose 
of  Almighty  God  to  lead  him  from  the 
bondage  of  Egypt  into  the  freedom  of  Pal- 
estine. He  will  bring  him  the  long  way 
through  vicissitudes  and  experiences,  all  of 
which  will  make  him  strong.  But  in  the 
lives  of  too  many  men  there  are  the  waters 
112 


IN  SIGHT  OF  PROMISED  LAND. 

of  Meribah  or  the  wilderness  of  Zin  which 
lead  them  from  the  way  and  cause  them  to 
relinquish  their  grasp  upon  the  verities. 
So  they  come  to  the  borders  of  the  prom- 
ised land  and  hear  the  word  that  they  can 
not  enter  in.  Spiritual  truth  has  its  law 
as  well  as  natural  truth.  We  are  just  as 
much  under  spiritual  gravity  as  we  are 
under  natural  gravity.  And  we  are  made 
to  realize  this  fact  by  the  inexorable  on- 
going of  God^s  will.  He  gives  us  intelli- 
gence to  choose  rightly,  and  we  are  the 
makers  of  our  own  destiny.  What  a  man 
soweth,  that  shall  he  also  reap. 

This  judgment  on  Moses  was  harsh,  but 
it  is  no  harsher  than  the  judgment  of  life 
generally.  We  can  account  for  the  judg- 
ment only  as  we  recognize  and  submit  our- 
selves unto  law  and  order.  If  this  world 
of  ours,  according  to  the  dictum  of  the  sci- 
entist, for  one  moment  should  deviate  from 
the  regularity  of  its  ongoing,  it  would 
shrivel  up  like  an  empty  snake-skin.  We 
have  the  same  pronouncement  in  Holy 
'  113 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 

Writ.  God  can  not  deviate  from  His  law 
or  order,  for  He  is  Law  and  Order.  While 
we  do  not  know  His  ways  and  do  not  un- 
derstand how  He  can  temper  justice  with 
mercy,  as  we  know  He  does,  we  dare  not 
take  chances  on  life.  We  are  going 
through  the  wilderness  under  His  guid- 
ance. We  must  accept  this  guidance  as 
sure  and  kind.  Ours  is  not  to  question,  but 
to  follow. 


114 


EOUND-ABOUT  WAYS  OF  GOD. 

From  Egypt  to  Palestine  is  a  marcli  of 
about  ^ve  days.  It  took  the  Israelites 
forty  years  to  make  the  journey.  God  led 
them  by  the  round-about  way.  The  near 
way  was  through  the  land  of  the  Philis- 
tines, a  hardy  and  warlike  people.  The  Is- 
raelites were  not  trained  to  fight.  They 
were  passing  from  a  period  of  slavery  to 
a  land  they  were  to  conquer.  They  had  no 
idea  as  yet  what  it  meant  to  govern. 
Hence  the  forty  years  of  training  and 
God's  round-about  way. 

The  experience  of  the  Children  of  Israel 
is  our  own.  The  ways  are  before  us.  They 
seem  short.  So  far  as  we  know  they  are 
easy  and  delightful.  But  God  says,  **You 
must  follow  the  round-about  way.''  Paul 
would  have  gone  to  Eome  much  earlier  in 
his  experience.  He  felt  confident  he  could 
115 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 

render  a  service  there.  But  twice  we  read 
the  Spirit  restrained  him  from  going.  We 
study  his  career  and  discover  he  was  not 
nearly  so  strong  as  he  thought  he  was; 
had  he  come  to  Rome  immediately,  it  must 
have  been  by  way  of  the  Philistines,  and 
he  might  have  been  overcome.  Then,  too, 
he  was  not  trained  for  his  work.  He 
needed  the  experience  which  he  went 
through  to  educate  him  for  his  great  tasks. 
Although  God's  round-about  way  led  him 
through  misunderstanding  and  persecu- 
tion, it  gave  him  the  routine  he  needed  as 
a  student  of  Christ's  gospel.  "When  he 
finally  reached  Rome  it  was  as  a  graduate 
in  the  school  of  Christ. 

So  we  make  experience.  We  ask  our- 
selves frequently,  **Why  is  it  necessary  for 
us  to  come  to  strength  and  knowledge  only 
by  the  long,  round-about  way^'  We  ask 
these  questions  as  grown-up  people.  When 
we  look  at  the  child  we  are  reminded  of 
our  own  infancy  and  of  our  weakness  and 
ignorance,  and  we  do  not  wonder  it  was 
116 


EOUND-ABOUT  WAYS  OF  GOD. 

necessary  for  us  to  come  by  slow  stages 
of  growth  into  the  strength  and  knowledge 
of  maturity.  But  as  the  great  questions 
crowd  about  us,  as  we  are  dealing  with  the 
problems  of  life,  we  ask  why  we  can  not 
make  more  progress  into  strength  and  en- 
lightenment. It  matters  not  whether  these 
problems  go  to  the  very  heart  of  the  uni- 
verse and  deal  with  the  grave  concerns  of 
eternity  and  destiny,  or  whether  they  are 
the  more  practical  problems  of  success  and 
failure  in  our  life's  work.  Whatever  they 
are,  we  are  impatient  of  the  slow  progress 
we  make.  The  young  man  as  he  enters  col- 
lege looks  forward  to  his  course  with  all 
the  eagerness  and  buoyancy  of  his  youth- 
ful enthusiasm.  He  is  apt  to  fret  and  to 
chafe  under  the  routine  and  the  necessary 
stages  of  his  work.  Why  can  he  not  take 
more  hours  than  are  allotted  him?  Why 
must  the  course  be  so  long?  But  when  the 
end  comes  he  looks  backward  with  the  ex- 
perience he  gained  while  prosecuting  his 
studies.  The  years'  wandering  in  the  wil- 
117 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 

demess,  as  it  were,  seems  a  very  brief 
period,  and  the  training  for  Ms  life's  work 
all  too  short. 

Why  does  not  G^od  unveil  His  face? 
Why  has  He  said,  '*No  one  shall  see  My 
face  and  live?"  Why  does  He  hold  His 
secrets  and  mysteries  so  close  within  His 
own  grasp?  The  way  to  the  promised 
land  of  divine  knowledge  ought  to  be  near 
if  God  is  good.  If  He  is  mindful  of  the  in- 
terests of  His  children,  why  does  He  not 
lead  them  straight  to  it?  This  was  the 
thought  of  the  early  Israelites,  who,  as  we 
are  told,  concluded  to  go  the  near  way  to 
God.  They  would  build  a  tower  which 
would  reach  into  the  very  heavens.  They 
would  project  themselves  into  the  very 
presence  of  the  Almighty.  They  would 
learn  His  secrets.  They  would  bring  them 
down  to  earth.  Up  the  steps  of  this  tower 
mankind  would  freely  pass,  and  all  that 
was  known  in  heaven  would  likewise  be 
known  upon  the  earth.  But  God  said: 
*  *Not  so.  This  is  the  way  through  the  land 
118 


EOUND-ABOUT  WAYS  OF  GOD. 

of  the  Philistines;  you  are  not  strong 
enough  as  yet  to  bear  the  knowledge  which 
the  Almighty  reserves  for  you.  If  you 
should  peer  into  the  heavens  and  look  upon 
His  face  you  would  be  undone,  and  you 
could  never  reach  the  mind  of  the  Infinite." 
So  God  tumbled  over  the  stones  of  the 
tower  and  took  the  people  and  led  them 
by  the  round-about  way  through  His  school 
of  life. 

The  Old  Testament  is  a  history  of  this 
education.  From  the  heathen  ideas  of 
polytheism  to  the  Hebrew  idea  of  the  one 
God,  who  in  love  and  mercy  visited  His 
people  and  who  did  not  demand  their  phys- 
ical sacrifices  and  oblations,  was  a  long 
step.  We  read  the  steps  in  the  great  liter- 
ature of  the  prophets.  God  led  them  on 
through  this  way  of  the  wilderness  because 
they  needed  to  be  educated.  And  so,  too, 
in  the  Old  Testament  we  have  that  intense 
longing  for  deliverance  through  the  Mes- 
siah who  was  to  come.  Job's  cry,  **0h, 
that  one  might  plead  for  man  with  God, 
119 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 

as  a  son  of  man  pleadeth  for  his  neigh- 
bor,'' was  the  sob  of  every  earnest  and  de- 
vout Israelite.  What  grief,  what  anxiety, 
what  darkening  of  hope  and  trust  there 
were  as  the  Children  of  Israel  reached  out 
for  the  salvation  they  knew  must  come! 
Yet  God  led  them  in  this  regard  by  round- 
about stages.  Not  until  the  fullness  of 
time  was  come  did  He  send  forth  the  Re- 
deemer of  the  world.  Thus  God  reveals 
Himself.  He  takes  His  children  the  long 
way  round,  and  in  the  experience  they 
make  there  they  grow  strong  in  mental 
and  spiritual  strength. 

Man  is  not  always  willing  to  accept  this 
fact.  He  would  go  the  near  way.  Here, 
for  example,  is  a  class  of  people  whom  we 
might  call  the  easy-going  class.  They  lay 
the  great  problems  of  life  and  destiny  upon 
the  shelf.  They  will  not  concern  them- 
selves about  them.  If  there  is  a  God  in 
heaven,  and  He  is  good.  He  will  take  care 
of  them.  There  is  no  need  for  them  to  be 
concerned  about  their  welfare.  If  there 
120 


ROUND-ABOUT  WAYS  OF  GOD. 

is  no  God  in  heaven,  but  if  we  are  in  the 
grasp  of  a  blindly  working  mechanism, 
from  which  we  can  not  free  ourselves,  then 
we  shall  come  to  onr  sure  doom,  and  there 
is  no  escape  from  our  fate.  Let  us  drink, 
therefore,  and  be  merry,  for  to-morrow 
we  die.  These  easy-going  people  see  only 
the  near  way  into  life.  It  is  the  life  of 
least  resistance ;  it  is  the  life  of  immediate 
pleasure;  it  is  the  life  of  present  gain;  it 
is  the  life  to  be  lived  in  every  detail  here 
and  now, — the  life  that  leads  to  the  prom- 
ised land  of  existence.  They  do  not  see 
the  Philistines  along  the  way,  or,  if  they 
do,  do  not  realize  how  weak  they  are  to 
cope  with  them. 

Or  here  are  those  who  see  only  evil  in 
the  world.  They  hear  the  song  of  the  lark, 
it  is  true,  but  the  hiss  of  the  adder  sounds 
in  their  ear.  They  pluck  the  wild  rose, 
but  their  pleasure  is  destroyed  because 
they  find  the  poison  ivy  growing  near. 
They  till  their  fields  to  sow  the  grain,  but 
they  do  it  discontentedly,  because  they 
121 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 

know  that  the  witch-grass  or  other  weed 
will  grow  in  strength  and  plenty.  They 
prune  their  trees  and  spray  them,  but  only 
with  the  thought  that  the  scale  or  thrip  will 
destroy  the  crop.  They  do  not  hear  God's 
voice  in  the  gently  falling  rain,  but  in  the 
rolling  thunder.  They  do  not  see  God's 
hand  in  the  warming  ray  of  the  sun,  but 
in  the  flash  of  the  lightning.  God's  pres- 
ence is  not  discovered  in  the  sprouting  of 
the  grass  or  the  dawn  of  each  new  day,  but 
in  the  earthquake  or  the  volcano  or  the 
tidal  wave.  God  is  present  somewhere, 
doubtless,  but  He  is  a  great  cosmic  force 
removed  by  infinite  stages  from  the  life  of 
the  individual.  He  is  bringing  a  world  to 
perfection.  He  is  training  a  people  for  ulti- 
mate good  and  happiness.  In  the  process 
there  will  be  great  cataclysms  of  nature. 
The  deeps  of  the  ocean  will  be  stirred  and 
the  peaks  of  the  mountains  will  tremble 
and  human  beings  unnumbered  will  go  to 
their  death.  Man  as  an  individual  will  be 
only  an  incident  in  the  ongoing  stream  of 
122 


ROUND-ABOUT  WAYS  OF  GOD. 

life.  If  he  has  discovered  anything  good, 
if  he  has  developed  a  mind  that  is  able  to 
grasp  and  fix  great  truths,  if  he  has  left 
a  song  or  a  painting  or  a  statue  which  ap- 
peals to  posterity,  if  he  has  been  the  lead- 
ing spirit  in  a  body  politic  or  a  religious 
order  or  an  educational  system,  his 
achievements  will  simply  be  added  to  the 
sum  total  of  the  good  that  man  accom- 
plishes as  he  lives  his  life  and  does  his 
work.  But  he  himself  will  pass  out  into 
the  night.  He  was  only  a  spark  which  was 
fanned  by  environment  and  conditions  into 
a  bright  light,  but  which  was  extinguished 
again  by  the  very  same  forces  of  environ- 
ment and  condition.  So  the  pessimist  or 
the  stoic  is  abroad  in  the  land.  He  would  go 
the  near  way.  He  can  not  see  the  reason 
or  the  purpose  of  the  round-about  way,  and 
before  he  knows  it,  comes  in  conflict  with 
the  Philistines  and  goes  down  to  defeat. 

Or  there  are  those  who  look  upon  life 
only  as  beautiful  and  good.    This  is  their 
near  way  to  the  promised  land.    There  are 
123 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 

jarring  discords,  there  are  black  clouds, 
there  are  grave  apprehensions.  But  they 
would  drown  the  discords  in  pleasant  mu- 
sic, they  would  draw  rainbows  over  the 
clouds,  they  would  quiet  themselves  by 
false  hopes  in  spite  of  their  fears.  Sin  is 
non-existent;  evil  is  good  gone  wrong  or 
not  yet  able  to  adjust  itself  to  the  higher 
life ;  pain  is  only  an  imagination ;  sickness, 
a  delusion.  Like  the  Hindu  of  old,  they 
would  draw  the  robe  of  f  orgetf  ulness  about 
them  and  lose  themselves  in  an  imaginary 
world.  But  this  is  the  way  of  Philistia.  It 
is  not  God's  way.  The  hard,  obstinate 
facts  of  sin  and  sickness,  of  misery  and 
woe,  are  before  us,  and  in  order  to  under- 
stand them  we  have  to  wander  through  the 
wilderness.  We  must  make  the  experience 
of  the  Children  of  Israel.  We  will  be  re- 
bellious, we  will  be  impatient,  we  will  be 
obstinate;  but  under  God's  hand  we  must 
continue. 

The  problem  becomes  a  personal  one. 
We  all  go  through  a  bondage  in  Egypt;  a 
124 


ROUND-ABOUT  WAYS  OF  GOD. 

slavery  of  some  kind  attaches  to  us.  God 
can  and  does  lead  ns  out  of  this  Egypt. 
He  can  do  it  in  a  night,  as  He  led  out  the 
Children  of  Israel.  But  it  is  an  entirely 
different  matter  for  Him  to  take  us  to 
Palestine.  The  Egypt  inheres  in  our  blood, 
it  flows  through  our  veins,  and  it  is  as  im- 
portant for  the  Almighty  to  get  Egypt  out 
of  us  as  it  is  to  get  us  into  Palestine. 
The  long,  round-about  way  is  necessary. 
If  we  were  strong  enough  to  go  through 
the  land  of  Philistia  we  would  immediately 
think  too  highly  of  ourselves.  The  feel- 
ings of  independence  would  stir  in  our 
veins;  we  would  have  no  need  for  the  Al- 
mighty; nay,  we  would  even  ignore  Him, 
or  declare  Him  to  be  non-existent. 

We  must  go  the  longer  way.  Here  we 
shall  meet  our  foes  gradually  and  have  a 
fighting  chance  against  them.  We  must 
be  led  even  to  the  very  point  of  despair, 
where  water  and  food  fail  us,  in  order  to 
see  that  God  can  and  will  provide.  We 
must  be  placed  before  inscrutable  mystery 
125 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 

in  order  to  see  that  the  mind  of  man  is  not 
sufficient  unto  itself,  but  dependent  upon 
God.  By  constant  disappointment  in  the 
wilderness  we  must  learn  that  stability  and 
sufficiency  in  daily  life  are  the  result  of 
gradual,  painstaking,  invigorating  growth, 
and  that  the  road  to  ease  and  plenty  is  the 
round-about  way.  When  we  come  face 
to  face  with  the  deeper  problems  of  life  we 
must  understand  that  there  is  something 
lying  underneath,  and  that  only  as  we 
strive  to  reach  this  can  we  show  ourselves 
fit  for  life's  task. 

Life  is  the  test  of  the  long  run.  It  is 
not  an  easy  task.  Its  solutions  are  not 
clear  and  ready.  But  it  is  a  run  we  can 
make;  it  is  a  task  we  can  accomplish.  A 
Federal  commissioner  listened  attentively 
to  a  proposed  plan,  and  finally  gave  his  ap- 
proval. But  he  added,  **Do  you  know  that 
you  have  entered  upon  a  hundred  years' 
job?"  **We  do,"  was  the  instant  re- 
sponse, **and  so  we  haven't  an  hour  to 
lose."  God  calls  us,  and  He  leads. 
126 


XI. 

THE  WIDENING  UNIVEESE. 

Deep  in  the  consciousness  of  men  lies  the 
conviction  that  for  earnest  and  devoted 
consecration  to  any  cause  there  is  no  limit 
to  the  possibility  of  result.  He  who  truly 
loves  his  calling  or  pursuit  is  aware  of  the 
fact  that  there  are  wide  areas  for  him  to 
possess  which  as  yet  lie  undiscovered. 
And  even  if  he  feel  his  incapacity  to  dis- 
cover and  possess  them,  he  is  not  ready  to 
say  that  no  other  is  capable  of  this  task. 
The  most  conceited  or  self-confident  man 
dare  not  claim  that  human  ability  and  ca- 
pacity have  come  to  their  final  flowering 
in  him. 

As   we   consider  how   man's   universe 

widens  as  he  loves  and  devotes  himself  to 

any  one  cause,  we  find  a  confirmation  of 

the  words,  **Eye  hath  not  seen,  nor  ear 

127 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 

heard,  neither  have  entered  into  the  heart 
of  man  the  things  that  God  hath  prepared 
for  them  that  love  Him." 

Following  this  thought,  we  see  how  the 
loving  mind  and  heart  ever  lives  in  a 
widening  and  expanding  universe.  This 
is  true  in  our  most  commonplace  experi- 
ences. He  who  loves  the  stars  and  the 
flowers  will  exclaim  with  the  psalmist  that 
*  *  the  heavens  declare  the  glory  of  God  and 
the  firmament  showeth  His  handiwork." 
And  his  universe  will  be  an  ever  widening 
one,  for  he  will  discover  the  presence  of 
God  even  in  the  common  wayside  bush. 
He  who  really  loves  his  neighbor  will  be- 
gin to  understand  the  power  of  love  that 
passeth  all  knowledge.  His  universe  will 
ever  be  a  widening  one,  for  he  will  be  in 
the  presence  of  the  Eternal,  whose  love  fills 
the  earth  as  the  waters  cover  the  sea. 

But  in  a  more  particular  sense  we  dis- 
cover how  a  devoted  mind  and  heart  en- 
larges its  own  world.  We  look  out  on  the 
heavens  at  night  and  see  a  white  patch  of 
128 


THE  WIDENING  UNIVERSE. 

light.  To  the  naked  eye  it  has  the  appear- 
ance of  a  filmy  vapor.  This  is  all  it  will 
remain  to  those  who  have  no  further  in- 
terest in  heavenly  bodies.  But  for  him 
who  really  loves  the  stars,  what  a  widening 
universe  there  is !  He  turns  his  telescope 
upon  that  milky  spot,  and  it  miraculously 
expands  into  a  whole  world  of  planets,  each 
moving  with  as  much  regularity  and  pur- 
pose across  the  beaten  tracks  of  the  sky 
as  the  planet  upon  which  we  live.  Within 
the  radius  of  the  natural  eye  one  can  count 
six  thousand  stars;  the  telescopes  of  our 
modern  observatories  multiply  this  range 
of  vision  more  than  two  hundred  times, 
and  in  that  ever  widening  area  a  hundred 
million  suns  are  seen  to  revolve. 

Even  after  the  eye  of  man,  looking 
through  the  strongest  telescope,  has  ex- 
hausted its  power,  the  universe  of  the 
heavens  still  continues  to  widen.  For  a 
sensitized  plate  is  applied  to  the  eye-piece 
of  a  telescope,  the  huge  tube  is  turned  to 
what  seems  an  empty  space  in  the  arching 
129 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 

heavens,  and  after  long  exposure  tlie  plate 
is  dotted  with  thousands  of  tiny  points, — 
each  point  registering  a  planet  circling  in 
its  orhit  at  a  distance  beyond  even  the 
guess  of  man.  "What  the  human  eye  can 
not  see  is  by  this  miracle  made  known  to 
human  knowledge,  and  there  is  not  a  scien- 
tist foolish  enough  to  dispute  these  facts. 
Eye  hath  not  seen, — and  yet  to  the  mind  of 
man  it  hath  been  revealed.  Think  of  the 
enthusiasm  of  the  psalmist  as  he  said, 
**When  I  consider  Thy  heavens,  the  work 
of  Thy  finger,  the  moon  and  the  stars 
which  Thou  hast  ordained. ' '  And  yet  that 
ancient  Hebrew  had  no  conception  of  the 
innumerable  unseen  worlds  the  Almighty 
was  holding  in  the  hollow  of  His  hand. 
For  beyond  all  human  vision  a  thousand 
million  suns  and  planets  were  revolving, 
and  he  could  see  only  a  few  stars. 

Shall    we    stop    with   the    astronomer! 

What  the  telescope  reveals  to  us  on  the 

scale  of  the  vast  the  microscope  reveals  on 

the   plane   of   the   minute.     How   many 

130 


THE  WIDENING  UNIVERSE. 

spheres  as  large  as  an  orange  or  even  a 
football  would  it  take  to  fill  the  area  of  our 
globe?  And  yet  such  an  inconceivable 
number  of  spheres  are  packed  into  every 
dewdrop,  and  science  discovers  that  in  each 
one  of  these  infinite simally  small  molecules 
is  a  stellar  system  as  regular  as  the  solar 
system,  and  much  more  marvelous  because 
a  million  million  times  more  minute.  Can 
we  stop  here?  The  same  widening  universe 
opens  up  for  the  botanist,  the  geologist,  the 
chemist,  the  physicist,  the  psychologist. 
Eye  hath  not  seen,  nor  ear  heard,  neither 
have  entered  into  the  heart  of  man  the 
things  which  lie  discoverable  for  every  true 
devotee  of  science. 

Or  turn  to  what  we  regard  as  ordinary 
inventive  ability.  How  have  the  discov- 
eries of  the  last  hundred  years  added  to 
the  sum  total  of  our  knowledge  and  com- 
fort! And  yet,  does  any  one  believe  there 
is  a  limit  to  the  possibilities  of  creative 
genius?  Every  invention  is  but  as  a  peb- 
ble dropped  into  the  bottomless  lake  of 
131 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 

life's  possibilities  starting  the  concentric 
circles  to  move  closer  in  shore.  The  inven- 
tion of  telegraphy  was  a  feat  which  our 
forefathers  would  have  ascribed  to  a  black 
hand,  and  the  ancients  have  written  down 
as  a  miracle.  To  operate  a  keyboard  in 
Baltimore  and  make  another  keyboard  in 
Washington  register  the  same  signals  so 
that  an  intelligent  and  accurate  message 
could  be  reproduced,  might  well  have 
seemed  to  the  men  of  sixty  years  ago  as 
the  limit  of  telegraphic  communication. 
But  for  the  minds  devoted  to  this  pursuit 
there  was  a  widening  universe,  and  soon 
the  subtle  currents  of  electric  power  were 
running  over  the  mountains  and  under  the 
seas,  until  the  whole  world  became  a  net- 
work of  telegraphic  appliance. 

Was  this  the  end"?  Had  the  limit  of  elec- 
tricity to  transmit  messages  been  reached  ? 
Not  at  all.  Other  minds  were  only  stimu- 
lated. The  universe  continued  to  widen. 
What  Morse  in  1844  perhaps  had  not 
dreamed  off,  Bell  in  1876  was  putting  into 
132 


THE  WIDENING  UNIVERSE. 

operation,  and  the  wires  began  to  carry- 
audible  speech  over  widely  separated  dis- 
tances. And  still  the  universe  widened. 
For  Marconi  made  the  very  air  articulate 
and  compressed  the  expanse  of  the  ocean 
in  the  speaking  limits  of  a  drawing-room. 

These  are  only  a  few  of  the  many  illus- 
trations that  suggest  themselves  to  us. 
Who  dares  be  hopeless  or  pessimistic  about 
the  future  or  declare  what  may  not  yet  be 
in  store  for  the  loving  mind  and  the  search- 
ing heart? 

What  is  true  in  the  physical  realm  is 
true  also  in  the  mental.  We  sometimes  de- 
plore the  fact  that  we  have  no  great  men 
such  as  lived  twenty  or  fifty  or  two  thou- 
sand years  ago.  We  compare  our  literary 
age  with  the  Elizabethan  or  ancient  clas- 
sical; we  speak  of  philosophers  and  think 
of  Plato  and  Kant;  we  study  art  and  go 
back  to  the  period  of  the  Eenaissance,  as 
though  literature  and  philosophy  and  art 
were  dead  in  this  day  and  generation. 

Even  in  a  field  where  it  may  seem  that 
133 


SPIEITUAL  VALUES. 

the  old  is  better  than  the  new  is  there  ever 
the  expansive  power  of  the  mind  to  grap- 
ple with  humanity's  growing  problems. 
Man  is  so  constituted  that  he  is  forever 
equal  to  his  emergencies.  Not  every  man 
has  been  a  great  man  or  a  leader,  to  be 
sure,  but  a  man  for  every  age  and  every 
crisis  of  the  world's  history  has  appeared. 
Humankind  has  not  yet  been  left  without 
a  mind  ready  for  the  demands  of  the  hour 
or  an  innumerable  company  capable  to 
undertake  the  tasks  of  the  moment.  At 
times  there  has  seemed  to  be  a  long  wait- 
ing for  such  men,  as  though  the  currents  of 
life  were  running  to  the  shore  and  there 
were  no  escape  from  the  shoals.  But  just 
as  we  have  steamed  along  the  coast  and 
the  land  closed  in  on  all  sides,  and  at  the 
moment  when  our  ship  seemed  sure  to 
strike  the  reef,  the  shore  began  to  give  way, 
there  was  a  broadening  of  the  waters,  and 
we  found  ourselves  in  a  haven  for  safe 
anchorage  and  a  future  starting-point  on 
our  journey ;  so  in  times  past  have  the  ob- 
134 


THE  WIDENING  UNIVERSE. 

stacles  confronting  the  State,  the  Church, 
the  school,  the  individual,  melted  away  as 
the  widened  universe  of  some  mind  opened 
out,  and  a  safe  repose  was  found  until  the 
further  steps  of  progress  needed  to  be 
taken. 

It  is  most  suggestive  to  study  the  prob- 
lems with  which  successive  ages  have  had 
to  deal.  All  the  puzzles,  for  example,  that 
the  modem  mind  has  grappled  with  con- 
fronted Greek  philosophy  four  hundred 
years  before  Christ  was  bom.  The  Greeks 
magnificently  answered  them,  but  only 
from  their  point  of  view  and  limited  expe- 
rience. Their  answers  did  not  solve  the 
problem,  but  they  served  to  stimulate  the 
thought  of  succeeding  ages  as  the  widening 
universe  of  man's  mind  demanded.  Plato's 
mind  was  a  high  tower  in  the  Ancient 
World,  but  it  was  not  high  enough  to 
darken  succeeding  minds.  The  intellect  of 
the  great  German  philosopher  has  been 
regarded  as  the  highest  peak  in  the  range 
of  modem  mental  capacity.  The  mighty 
135 


SPIEITUAL  VALUES. 

stirrings  in  his  brain  piled  up  tlie  world 
of  thought  mountain  high,  and  men  are 
still  climbing  to  reach  that  height.  But  as 
a  lower  mountain,  looked  at  from  the  plain, 
will  hide  the  higher  mountains  beyond,  so, 
standing  on  the  level  of  the  present,  we 
dare  not  say  that  contemporary  thought 
does  not,  or  that  future  thought  will  not, 
see  yet  higher  peaks  of  intellect.  The  more 
we  study  the  progress  of  thought  the  more 
do  we  discover  the  power  of  mind  and  the 
capacity  of  life  to  unfold  an  ever-growing 
and  widening  world. 

This  fact  has  deep  meanings.  If  the 
Almighty  has  put  man  in  a  widening  uni- 
verse and  has  given  him  the  power  to  grow 
with  it,  is  there  to  be  a  sudden  end  to  this 
growth  ?  Why  shall  it  not  continue  as  long 
as  the  universe?  The  universe  is  not 
merely  this  world,  it  is  the  whole  creation 
and  thought  of  Almighty  God.  Why,  then, 
should  we  limit  life  to  this  world,  and  not 
rather  consider  it  co-extensive  with  God's 
universe,  and  hence  eternal? 
136 


THE  WIDENING  UNIVERSE. 

This  has  ever  been  man's  belief,  even  in 
the  ages  of  tradition  long  preceding  the 
times  of  history.  And  there  has  been  no 
power  able  successfully  to  drive  this 
thought  from  the  minds  of  men.  Ancient 
and  modern  doubt  and  skepticism  have 
been  as  little  able  to  confine  man  in  his 
thought  to  a  life  that  ends  in  this  world,  as 
the  stone  that  was  rolled  in  front  of  Jesus' 
grave  was  capable  of  holding  Him  a  pris- 
oner therein.  Science  does  not  separate 
us  from  God,  but  ever  brings  us  closer  to 
Him.  And  the  nearer  we  come  to  Him  the 
more  are  our  minds  stayed  by  the  power 
of  an  endless  life.  **What  aforetime  men 
ignorantly  believed,  Jesus  hath  declared 
unto  us,  and  hath  brought  life  and  immor- 
tality to  light."  As  death  was  not  the  cul- 
mination of,  but  only  an  incident  in  His 
life,  so  can  death  have  no  fears  for  us,  for 
we  are  already  in  our  Father's  house,  liv- 
ing the  life  eternal,  and  shall  simply  enter 
its  larger  room. 

Our  unfinished  work,  the  hundred  plans 
137 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 

we  have  evolved  and  the  thousand  ambi- 
tions we  have  cherished,  will  not  come  to 
naught.  In  that  wider  universe  that  shall 
naturally  imf old  for  us  we  shall  labor  and 
love  throughout  eternity.  My  Father 
worketh  hitherto,  and  I  work.  Because  I 
live  ye  shall  live  also.  Where  I  am  there 
ye  shall  likewise  be.  What  that  universe 
is,  eye  hath  not  seen,  nor  ear  heard,  but  it 
exists  as  surely  as  do  the  planets  revolving 
in  space  beyond  our  power  of  sight;  it  is 
as  real  as  human  love,  which  we  feel,  but 
can  not  understand. 

What  is  our  warrant  for  these  state- 
ments? Not  the  voice  of  the  scientist.  If 
he  tells  us  there  is  no  human  immortality, 
we  reject  his  statement.  But  not  because 
of  lack  of  proof — simply  because  of  his 
own  personal  disbelief.  If  he  tells  us  there 
is  human  immortality,  we  gladly  accept  his 
statement.  But  not  because  he  has  proved 
it — simply  because  he  personally  believes 
it.  For  *'the  faith  of  immortality  de- 
pends on  a  sense  of  it  begotten,  and  not 
138 


THE  WIDENING  UNIVEESE. 

on  an  argument  of  it  concluded."  (Bush- 
nell.)  This  sense  is  begotten  of  God;  it  is 
His  creation,  implanted  in  the  heart  and 
life  of  man.  As  we  love  Him  we  prepare 
ourselves  for  all  that  He  has  in  store  for 
us.  We  nourish  this  life  so  that  it  natu- 
rally widens  into  the  life  beyond. 

As  we  contemplate  the  resurrection  of 
Jesus,  it  is  a  significant  fact  that  He  ap- 
peared in  His  resurrection  body  to  none 
save  His  followers.  Those  who  loved  Him 
saw  Him  and  recognized  Him  as  soon  as 
He  exhibited  some  trait  of  character  or 
manner  of  speech  with  which  they  had 
been  familiar  in  His  lifetime.  The  eyes  of 
the  two  walking  with  Him  to  Emmaus  were 
beholden  simply  because  they  were  looking 
down  upon  the  ground,  and  not  up  at  Him. 
As  soon  as  they  looked  upon  His  face  they 
recognized  Him  and  understood  why  their 
hearts  had  so  burned  within  them  as  He 
talked  with  them. 

Here  is  the  conclusion  of  the  whole  mat- 
ter. The  soul  that  is  preparing  itself  for 
139 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 

immortal  life,  that  is  looking  upon  the  fair 
face  of  the  Eternal,  is  able  to  recognize  and 
comprehend  immortality.  The  pure  in 
heart  shall  see  God;  they  who  love  Him 
shall  enter  into  the  Kingdom  prepared  for 
them  Before  the  foundation  of  the  world. 
**For  eye  hath  not  seen,  nor  ear  heard, 
neither  have  entered  into  the  heart  of  man 
the  things  that  God  hath  prepared  for  them 
that  love  Him.''  Immortality  thus  be- 
comes an  experience  and  we  begin  to  live 
the  immortal  life  here  and  now. 


140 


XII. 

EVENING  AND  MOENING. 

We  read  in  Genesis  that  the  evening  and 
the  morning  were  the  first  day.  The  prog- 
ress of  creation  was  from  nightfall  until 
dawn,  and  not  from  daybreak  until  sunset. 
The  eternal  forces  were  working  not 
through  the  bright  hours  of  sunlight  until 
darkness,  but  through  the  dark  hours  of 
the  night  until  sunrise.  The  earth  in  the 
beginning  was  without  form  and  void,  and 
darkness  was  upon  the  face  of  the  deep. 
We  think  of  the  end  of  the  world  as  a 
day  of  great  darkness,  when  the  sun  shall 
be  veiled  and  the  moon  hidden.  But  this 
may  be  but  the  beginning  of  the  world,  or 
of  a  new  era.  When  the  earth  trembles 
and  the  mountains  bum  and  smoke  covers 
the  land,  man  fears  that  the  last  moment 
of  the  world  has  come.  But  the  great  cata- 
clysms of  history  have  marked  beginnings 
141 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 

rather  than  final  stops,  and  we  note  the 
order  of  progress  from  evening  until  morn- 
ing. 

Darkness  is  so  much  a  suggestion  of 
dread,  and  even  of  death,  that  we  fail  to 
note  its  significance.  In  the  divine  econ- 
omy it  is  the  beginning,  and  not  the  end, 
of  the  day.  It  is  the  evening  and  night 
through  which  man  must  pass  to  the  morn- 
ing and  day.  If  we  can  grasp  this  truth 
we  shall  have  a  key  with  which  to  open 
many  a  dark  chamber  of  life,  and  light 
will  stream  upon  many  a  clouded  and  con- 
fused problem. 

In  the  beginning  darkness  was  upon  the 
face  of  the  waters.  It  was  upon  this  dark- 
ness that  the  Spirit  of  God  breathed.  Had 
there  been  light  at  the  beginning,  there 
would  have  been  need  of  neither  sun  nor 
moon  nor  stars  nor  even  of  God  Himself. 
God  alone  is  Light.  All  else  is  darkness 
until  He  breathes,  and  then  He  leads  His 
children  through  the  night  into  the  day. 
At  the  end  of  the  day  there  is  not  night 
142 


EVENING  AND  MOENING. 

again,  but  the  new  and  endless  day  whicli 
John  on  Patmos  saw,  where  **  there  shall 
be  no  need  of  a  candle,  nor  light  of  the 
snn,  for  the  Lord  God  giveth  it  light,  and 
they  who  dwell  there  shall  reign  for  ever 
and  ever."  From  the  chaos  and  darkness 
of  Genesis  to  the  heavenly  order  and  light 
of  Revelation — this  is  the  divine  progres- 
sion. 

We  find  darkness  at  first  on  the  face  of 
man's  intellect.  We  call  the  years  which 
divided  ancient  from  modem  history  the 
Dark  Ages.  But  this  age  was  as  the  first 
streaks  of  dawn  compared  with  the  dark- 
ness of  history's  beginning.  This  dark- 
ness at  the  beginning  can  not  be  pene- 
trated. Scholars  devote  their  best  energy 
to  lift  the  veil  of  dimness.  They  can  go 
back  a  certain  way  only.  Then  mystery 
and  myth  begin.  The  light  of  day  becomes 
enveloped  in  a  mist,  and  this  mist  leads 
to  night.  Into  this  night  there  is  no  pass- 
ing. The  progress  is  from  darkness  to 
day,  and  not  otherwise. 
143 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 

It  would  seem  as  though  there  were  a 
divine  wisdom  here  in  blocking  man's  way 
into  the  past.  It  would  seem  as  though 
man,  like  Moses,  were  asking  to  see  the 
face  of  God,  and  that  the  answer  came 
back,  **My  face  thou  shalt  not  see,  for 
there  shall  no  man  see  Me  and  live." 
There  is  a  reason  here.  For  we  know  that 
men  who  persist  in  remaining  in  the  dark, 
even  although  their  first  purpose  was  a 
good  one,  are  not  fit  for  the  day.  They 
lose  their  organs  of  sight  like  the  mice  in 
Mammoth  Cave  and  the  moles  in  the  earth. 
Herein  is  a  suggestion,  too,  why  scholars 
who  live  only  in  the  past,  or  whose  inter- 
ests are  subjective  and  not  objective,  pro- 
mulgate views  often  which  have  no  relation 
to  or  importance  for  the  light  and  life  of 
our  world.  They  are  called  closet-philoso- 
phers, because  they  never  move  beyond  the 
rooms  in  which  they  work. 

The  mind  of  man  begins  by  groping.  He 
is  first  blind.  Even  after  his  eyes  have 
been  anointed  he  sees  men  as  trees  walk- 
144 


EVENING  AND  MORNING. 

ing.  In  the  beginning,  to  drop  the  figure, 
he  is  in  the  region  of  ignorance.  He  un- 
derstands but  a  few  facts,  and  these  often 
he  is  unable  to  demonstrate.  He  must 
reach  his  conclusions  by  making  mental 
leaps.  He  can  not  pick  out  a  way  step  by 
step.  When  God  called  Abraham  to  go 
forth  into  an  unknown  land,  Abraham  was 
in  darkness.  His  only  light  was  the  fact 
that  God  called  him.  So  the  mind  of  man 
moves  in  darkness  when  his  intellectual  in- 
stincts call  him  to  go  forth  into  a  new  coun- 
try. His  only  light  is  the  persistence  of 
the  call.  There  are  streaks  of  light  in  the 
darkness  sometimes,  but  too  often  they 
are  not  the  real  light.     They  are 

**The  wisp  that  flickers  where  no  foot  can  tread." 

It  is  well  to  note  this  fact.  It  is  declared 
by  some  that  darkness  reigns  only  in  the 
realm  of  religion;  that  in  science  there  is 
light,  and  no  darkness  at  all ;  and  that  this 
light  lighteth  every  one  that  cometh  into 
the  world.  We  should  not  get  very  far 
145 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 

if  we  depended  only  upon  tlie  light  of 
science.  Here,  as  well  as  everywhere  else, 
there  is  night  in  the  beginning,  a  groping 
in  the  dark,  reaching  out  the  hands  of  spec- 
ulation and  hypothesis,  until  there  is  some- 
thing firm  to  grasp  hold  of  and  day  can 
be  drawn  in.  In  every  department  of  the 
mental  life  we  go  forth  with  theories,  with 
stray  bits  of  testimonies.  As  we  cling  to 
these,  by  the  faith  that  is  in  us,  light  be- 
gins to  dawn  and  we  are  able  to  see. 

There  is  darkness  in  the  beginning  on 
the  face  of  man's  moral  aspirations.  Man 
desires  to  be  good  and  to  do  right.  But 
he  has  a  very  limited  insight  into  what  is 
good.  We  are  disturbed  sometimes  at  the 
relentless  recital  of  immorality  in  the  Old 
Testament.  Instead  of  declaring,  on  the 
one  hand,  that  the  accounts  of  wholesale 
murders  and  of  wickedness  frequently  re- 
sulting in  tragedy  are  a  sufficient  reason 
for  rejecting  the  Bible  as  a  moral  guide, 
or,  on  the  other  hand,  of  assuming  that 
God  was  responsible  for  such  doings,  and 
146 


EVENING  AND  MOENING. 

therefore  can  not  be  a  good  or  loving  God, 
it  is  well  to  look  at  such  accounts  squarely 
and  ask  why  they  are  permitted  in  a  book 
that  takes  a  higher  moral  plane  than  any 
other  book  ever  written.  The  accounts  of 
immorality  in  the  Old  Testament  do  not 
vitiate,  but  emphasize  the  moral  teaching 
of  the  Bible.  And  this  Book  would  not 
be  true  to  itself  if  there  were  no  details 
of  darkness  in  the  moral  strivings  of  its 
heroes.  It  is  an  account  of  human  nature, 
and  human  nature  has  its  evening  before 
its  morning.  Go  as  far  back  as  we  can  into 
the  beginning  of  mankind,  and  we  find 
him  moving  in  moral  darkness.  The  im- 
mediate members  of  his  family  or  clan 
were  his  friends.  But  everybody  else  was 
his  enemy.  And  any  means  was  honoraHe 
which  would  enable  him  to  conquer  and  to 
kill  his  enemy.  Even  after  Israel  had  ad- 
vanced far  in  its  knowledge  of  God  it  still 
regarded  Him  as  the  God  only  of  the  He- 
brews and  would  have  excluded  all  other 
nations  from  the  benefits  of  His  love  and 
147 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 

wisdom.  In  the  individual  life  the  rights 
of  one's  neighbor,  especially  of  woman, 
were  not  considered  in  the  light  of  our 
modem  altruistic  and  beneficent  motives. 
Property  of  others  was  appropriated,  sa- 
cred obligations  were  trampled  upon.  The 
law  of  most  might  and  keenest  shrewdness 
prevailed. 

This  could  not  have  been  otherwise. 
And  yet  man  went  forth  out  of  darkness 
into  light.  The  desire  to  be  good  and  to 
do  right  constrained  him.  The  darkness 
of  his  moral  conduct  was  a  schoolmaster. 
And  he  learned  lessons  which  he  carved  in 
the  milestones  which  mark  civilization's 
advance.  At  the  present  time  we  are  in 
the  full  light  of  day  on  many  a  moral  ques- 
tion. The  darkness  of  the  beginning  is 
past,  and  we  shall  go  on  into  endless  day 
as  we  use  the  light  we  have.  But  other 
questions  rise  continually  concerning 
which  we  are  in  moral  darkness.  Every 
advance  civilization  makes  is  but  the  an- 
nouncement of  a  new  moral  problem. 
148 


EVENING  AND  MOENING. 

Mankind  was  never  in  a  darker  age 
morally  than  that  through  which  we  have 
been  and  are  passing  in  regard  to  the  great 
moneyed  interests  of  our  land.  Stealing 
was  considered  the  unrightful  taking  of  a 
loaf  of  bread  or  the  breaking  and  entering 
into  a  bank  at  night,  and  a  thief  one  who 
went  about  stealthily  and  with  a  jimmy, 
and  a  murderer  one  who  shot  down  another 
in  cold  blood.  But  new  kinds  of  stealing 
and  lif  etaking  have  germinated  and  grown 
so  rapidly  that  printing  presses  have  been 
kept  busy  describing  and  declaring  against 
them.  The  great  moral  problem  to-day  is 
the  problem  of  the  trust,  whether  it  be  of 
capital  or  labor.  While  right-minded  men 
are  groping  around  in  the  darkness  for 
a  solution  of  the  problem,  all  kinds  of 
known  and  hitherto  unknown  wrongs,  mis- 
demeanors, and  crimes  are  being  perpe- 
trated. But  it  is  not  a  going  back  into  the 
darkness  of  past  ages.  It  is  a  mark  of 
progress.  Large  and  intricate  combina- 
tions of  capital,  close  and  far-reaching 
149 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 

amalgamations  of  labor,  were  inevitable. 
We  are  forced,  to  be  sure,  to  protect  our- 
selves from  the  maraudings  and  depreda- 
tions of  tbis  night-time,  and  to  set  what 
lights  we  can  to  guide  us  in  the  darkness. 
But  the  day  will  dawn  and  the  terrors  and 
iniquities  of  the  night  will  be  an  experience 
that  taught  us  our  way. 

In  the  realm  of  morals  as  well  as  of  in- 
tellect there  is  first  evening  and  then  morn- 
ing. Darkness  in  the  beginning  is  also  on 
the  face  of  man 's  spiritual  yearnings.  In 
his  mental  operations  man  endeavors  to 
know.  There  is  no  moral  or  ethical  prin- 
ciple, as  such,  involved.  In  his  moral  striv- 
ings man  seeks  to  come  into  proper  rela- 
tions with  his  fellow-men,  to  be  right  be- 
fore them  and  to  have  their  approval.  But 
in  his  spiritual  yearnings  man  tries  to 
come  into  close  communion  with  the  Eter- 
nal. This  desire  has  always  characterized 
man,  and  it  represents  his  truest  self. 
Man  is  religious,  because  he  tries  in  spite 
of  himself  to  break  through  the  cloud  that 
150 


EVENING  AND  MOENING. 

hides  him  from  God.  And  singular  as  it 
may  seem,  God,  who  is  Light,  is  ever  repre- 
sented as  hiding  in  darkness.  The  peoples 
who  lived  before  the  Israelites  groped  in 
densest  darkness.  To  them  it  was  the 
night-time  of  God's  existence.  Their  ef- 
forts to  find  Him  are  interesting,  but  not 
instructive.  Their  mythologies,  it  is  true, 
struck  many  a  light  in  the  darkness,  but 
the  flames  were  feeble  and  soon  died  out. 
The  Israelites  had  a  feeling  for  the  light 
even  in  their  midnight  darkness.  As  they 
believed  that  the  sun  had  gone  in  hiding 
over  night  and  would  reappear,  so  they 
also  were  convinced  that  God  would  some 
time  come  out  of  the  darkness  and  show 
Himself  to  them.  This  belief  was  evi- 
denced in  such  words  as  are  reported  of 
Moses  when  he  is  expostulating  with  God 
and  cries,  **Show  me  Thy  face."  But  the 
Lord  spoke  to  Moses,  we  are  told,  only  out 
of  the  darkness  and  the  clouds  and  the 
thick  darkness.  The  mountain  itself 
burned  with  darkness.  In  the  darkness 
151 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 

God  made  His  pavilions.  Darkness  was 
in  His  paths,  as  Job  said.  Thick  darkness 
was  His  swaddling  band.  His  treasures 
were  in  darkness.  And  again  and  again 
the  psalmist  declares  that  clouds  and  dark- 
ness are  about  Him. 

Yet  this  darkness  is  the  precursor  of 
light.  It  is  evening  first  and  the  long  hours 
of  the  night,  and  then  morning.  The 
writer  of  the  Book  of  Revelation  has  the 
secret  when  he  says,  ''Behold,  He  cometh 
with  clouds,  and  every  eye  shall  see  Him.'* 
The  writers  of  the  Old  Testament  thought 
He  came  in  the  clouds,  and  that  the  clouds 
therefore  enveloped  Him.  But  he  who  saw 
the  New  Jerusalem  coming  down  out  of 
heaven  and  the  eternal  light,  saw  that  God 
comes  not  in,  but  with,  the  clouds  and  that 
the  darkness  is  only  in  the  seeming. 
Every  eye  shall  see  Him.  Suffering  is  a 
cloud,  but  God  is  not  in  the  cloud.  He  comes 
with  it,  and  in  the  darkness  is  ever  present 
to  lead  the  trusting  soul  into  the  light. 
Our  inability  to  understand  the  deep  and 
152 


EVENING  AND  MORNING. 

hidden  things  of  life,  to  know  what  the 
morrow  is  to  bring  forth,  to  comprehend 
the  happenings  even  of  to-day  or  of  yester- 
day, are  all  clouds  which  envelop  ns.  But 
they  do  not  envelop  God.  He  is  not  in  the 
cloud,  a  part  of  it.  He  comes  with  the 
cloud.  They  are  His  messengers,  modes 
of  His  workings,  and  **so  far  from  delay- 
ing His  coming,  are  the  very  chariots  in 
which  He  comes." 

No  life  can  be  complete  without  its  night 
as  well  as  day.  The  Spirit  of  God  moves 
on  the  dark  face  of  man's  spiritual  long- 
ings. He  says,  **Let  there  be  light,"  and 
there  is  light.  But  He  teaches  us  in  les- 
sons we  ought  not  to  misunderstand  that 
there  will  be  many  a  night  of  darkness  in 
our  lives,  many  an  hour  of  fear  and  trem- 
bling and  cold  dread,  many  a  season  of 
loneliness  and  heartache.  These  are  clouds 
in  which  He  reveals  Himself.  They  are  not 
the  end  of  hope  and  trust,  but  the  begin- 
ning; not  the  close  of  life,  but  its  opening, 
when  the  candle  of  our  night-time,  with  its 
153 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 

feeble  and  uncertain  flame,  will  become 
needless  as  the  great  orb  of  day  illumines 
our  pathway.  John  saw  this  on  Patmos 
because  he  walked  with  Jesus  in  Palestine. 
As  he  thought  of  darkness  he  remembered 
Jesus,  the  Sun  of  righteousness.  This 
was  the  Light  he  experienced.  And  this 
Light  *^lighteth  every  man  that  cometh 
into  the  world."  He  saw  Him  come  with 
the  clouds  to  usher  in  an  endless  day. 


154 


xin. 

EVEEY  MAN  TO  HIS  OWN  HOUSE. 

After  a  long  discussion  with  Jesus  and 
with  each  other  concerning  Jesus,  the 
crowd  dispersed,  and  **  every  man  went 
unto  his  own  house."  This  is  a  common 
experience  of  life.  The  lecture-room,  the 
sanctuary,  the  banquet  hall,  the  house  of 
mirth,  the  shop,  the  factory,  holds  its  as- 
sembly for  the  time  being.  And  then  learn- 
ers, worshipers,  revelers,  toilers  disperse 
and  go  home.  The  way  of  some  may  be 
the  same  for  a  while.  But  one  by  one  they 
begin  to  drop  off  and  turn  to  side  paths, 
until  every  man  has  entered  his  own  house. 
And  into  that  house  none  but  he  can  enter. 
For  his  house,  which  he  finally  enters,  is 
not  four  walls  and  a  roof,  but  the  inner 
recesses  of  his  own  self. 

This  fact  is  full  of  meaning.    It  suggests 

155 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 

that  every  man  lias  Ms  own  house.  The 
tendency  to  look  into  the  house  of  an- 
other, especially  at  night,  when  the  cur- 
tains are  not  drawn,  or  to  roam  about  a 
vacant  house,  to  see  how  its  rooms  are  ar- 
ranged, is  as  strong  as  it  is  natural.  A 
large  part  of  the  tourists'  time  in  Europe 
is  devoted  to  visiting  the  homes  of  cele- 
brated people  and  tramping  about  the  pal- 
aces of  royalty.  We  enter  the  house  of 
some  world-famed  man,  be  it  the  house 
where  he  was  bom  or  in  which  he  toiled  or 
died,  and  listen  with  rapt  attention  as  the 
attendant  leads  us  from  one  room  to  an- 
other. But  the  voice  of  that  attendant 
seems  to  be  the  voice  of  a  far-off  age,  as  it 
grinds  out  the  hackneyed  phrases,  **Here 
was  his  sleeping  apartment,"  or,  **Here 
the  living-room,"  or,  **Here  his  study," 
and  so  on.  These  we  have  come  miles  to 
see;  the  spirit  of  the  man  who  used  them 
is  still  pervasive ;  it  speaks,  and  we  under- 
stand his  writings  or  his  works  a  little  bet- 
ter. But  after  all  we  feel  that  this  was 
156 


EVERY  MAN  TO  HIS  OWN  HOUSE. 

not  his  real  house  and  does  not  explain 
the  man.  We  would  still  push  behind  the 
external  into  the  real  spirit  of  the  man. 

We  have  intimate  friends.  Our  tastes 
are  literary  or  scientific,  and  we  have  a 
certain  entree  into  the  homes  of  literary 
and  scientific  men.  We  are  invited  into  the 
drawing-room  and  engage  in  more  or  less 
desultory  conversation  in  the  midst  of  con- 
ventional surroundings.  Or  we  are  asked 
to  the  dining-room,  where  the  conversation 
becomes  intimate  and  familiar.  Finally, 
perhaps,  we  are  taken  into  the  study  or  the 
laboratory.  Now  we  have  reached  the 
inner  sanctum.  We  see  the  books  of  our 
friend  and  the  table  at  which  he  writes; 
or  his  microscopes  and  test-tubes  and  the 
place  where  he  experiments.  If  our  in- 
terest is  keen,  we  tread  as  on  hallowed 
ground.  We  are  in  the  very  place  from 
which  emanate  essays  and  books  charged 
with  life  and  formulas  far-reaching  in  their 
importance.    But  are  we? 

The  thought  soon  fastens  upon  us  that 
157 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 

mere  tools  and  a  workshop  do  not  let  ns 
into  the  secret  of  that  man's  labors  and 
success.  These  are  the  mere  common- 
place. There  stands  the  man.  The  secret 
of  his  work  will  ever  remain  hidden  in  his 
breast.  For  that  is  his  house,  and  none 
may  enter.  And  while  he  may  be  disposed 
to  let  everybody  in  and  open  up  every 
corridor  and  chamber  of  his  inner  self,  still 
it  is  beyond  his  power  to  disclose  the  mys- 
teries and  treasures  of  that  inner  house. 
The  eyes  of  those  who  enter  there  must 
remain  holden. 

Again,  we  read  a  book,  and  if  it  is  worthy 
of  our  time  we  immediately  want  to  know 
something  about  the  author.  We  image 
in  our  mind  his  likeness,  and  are  eager  to 
see  his  picture.  We  are  interested  in  every 
scrap  of  news  concerning  him;  how  he 
lives,  how  he  dresses,  how  he  talks.  We 
would  peer  into  his  house,  his  inner  self, 
and  with  piercing  and  all-sweeping  eyes 
discover  the  smallest  detail  of  his  person- 
ality and  genius.  We  are  not  repulsed,  but 
158 


EVERY  MAN  TO  HIS  OWN  HOUSE. 

pleased,  when  lie  writes  of  himself  in  the 
first  person  and  reveals  himself  as  a  lead- 
ing character  in  one  of  his  stories.  But 
he  lives  in  his  own  house,  and  we  may  not 
enter  in. 

Every  man  is  under  compulsion  to  go 
into  his  own  house.  He  can  not  go  into  the 
house  of  another.  His  house  must  always 
be  occupied.  He  can  not  bar  the  doors 
and  windows  and  put  up  a  notice  that  he 
has  gone  abroad.  However  far  man  may 
roam  in  his  body,  in  his  spirit  he  must 
stay  at  home.  And  his  home  life  will  rep- 
resent his  real  self.  However  he  may  seem 
to  others  on  the  outside,  as  he  comes  in 
contact  with  them  he  can  not  be  a  seeming 
to  himself.  He  must  be  what  he  is.  And 
in  the  end,  whatever  kind  of  a  man  he  is  in 
his  own  house  he  will  be  to  others  who 
come  to  know  him. 

We  are  thus  singled  out  and  individual- 
ized. Our  personality  may  be  very  much 
like  that  of  our  friend.  But  it  is  ours, 
nevertheless,  and  not  his.  Although  he 
159 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 

may  understand  us  better  than  any  one 
else,  he  will  not  be  able  to  lift  the  veil  en- 
tirely. And  whatever  our  problems  may 
be,  he  can  not  solve  them  for  us.  He  may 
help,  suggest,  inspire,  but  in  the  end  he 
can  not  act.  Whatever  sorrows  we  have 
we  must  bear  alone.  He  may  sympathize 
and  condole  and  make  the  burden  lighter, 
but  he  can  not  take  our  sorrow  and  bear  it. 
That  word  of  the  prophet,  speaking  of  Je- 
hovah's Servant,  that  He  **trod  the  wine- 
press alone,"  is  only  too  vividly  brought 
home  to  every  man  or  woman  who  must 
toil  and  weep. 

In  our  joys  it  seems  to  be  different,  as 
though  we  could  rollick  around  in  an- 
other's house  just  as  well  as  in  our  own. 
But  the  same  rule  holds  here.  Whatever 
the  mirth  or  enjoyment,  if  it  be  anything 
real  to  us  we  must  enter  with  it  into  our 
own  house  and  there  live  it.  Especially  is 
this  true  in  those  things  which  appeal  to 
our  aesthetic  and  intellectual  natures.  The 
beautiful  landscape  is  ours  only  as  we  look 
160 


EVERY  MAN  TO  HIS  OWN  HOUSE. 

at  it  through  the  windows  of  our  own 
house.  The  masterpiece  is  ours  only  as 
we  see  it  with  the  eyes  of  our  own  soul. 
The  oratorio,  the  musical  drama,  is  ours 
only  as  it  impinges  on  the  tympanum  of 
our  inner  ears.  Others  may  interpret  for 
us  and  make  the  meaning  clear.  But  they 
can  not  see  or  hear  for  us.  Into  our  own 
house  we  must  go,  and  there  make  the  mu- 
sic, the  painting,  the  far-sweeping  meadow 
our  own. 

So  of  learning.  The  mechanic  can  show 
the  apprentice  how  to  use  his  tools,  but 
he  can  not  handle  them  for  him.  The 
teacher  can  unfold  a  subject  for  his  stu- 
dent, but  he  can  not  carry  the  subject  into 
the  mind  of  the  student.  Apprentice  and 
pupil  must  each  go  into  his  own  house  and 
there  master  the  lessons  for  himself. 

As  it  becomes  more  and  more  apparent 
that  man  is  a  sole  tenant  in  his  own  house, 
it  is  of  some  importance  how  he  furnishes 
the  house.  Some  furniture  he  will  have 
inherited.  But  even  here  he  will  be  re- 
161 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 

sponsible  for  its  arrangement.  The  most 
of  his  material  lie  will  have  brought,  or 
will  constantly  be  bringing  from  the  out- 
side. And  what  his  house  ultimately  is 
will  turn  upon  his  attitude  to  this  great 
outside. 

The  artist's  house  will  exhibit  his  ar- 
tistic taste;  the  literary  man's,  his  schol- 
arly habits;  the  mechanic's,  his  practical 
bent.  So  the  world  will  be  able  to  mark 
them  oif  and  put  each  in  his  proper  class. 
But  whether  or  not  he  remains  in  that  class 
depends  upon  his  attitude  to  the  forces  that 
play  about  him  in  nature  and  the  world  of 
thought  and  action,  and  also  to  what  extent 
he  allows  his  natural  tendency  to  control 
him.  The  artist  must  ever  try  to  realize 
his  ideal.  The  suggestions  of  nature  and 
of  his  fellow-man  must  form  the  avenue 
along  which  this  realization  is  to  run.  So 
he  is  ever  bringing  into  his  house  the  ma- 
terial that  will  best  enable  him  to  furnish 
it  according  to  the  tastes  demanded  by  his 
real  self.  If  he  is  indifferent  to  these  out- 
162 


EVERY  MAN  TO  HIS  OWN  HOUSE. 

ward  promptings  he  will  soon  show  it  in 
his  inner  activities.  And  his  house  will  be 
no  longer  the  natural  place  of  entry  for 
everything  that  is  artistic  and  beautiful. 

We  are  all  in  this  sense  artists.  For 
we  are  engaged  in  perfecting  the  highest 
of  all  arts,  that  of  right  living.  And  here 
we  undervalue  too  greatly  the  necessity  of 
setting  our  own  houses  in  order,  or,  when 
we  have  done  so,  the  imperativeness  of 
keeping  them  in  order.  We  have  eyes  to 
see  outward,  and  can  see,  or  think  we  can 
see,  the  disorder  in  our  neighbors '  houses. 
We  have  no  eyes  to  see  inward,  and  there- 
fore are  blind  so  far  as  our  real  world  is 
concerned.  The  outer  world  and  the  world 
of  our  neighbors  will  be  colored  by  our  own 
world.  That  word  of  Jesus  concerning  the 
mote  and  the  beam  is  very  much  in  point. 
We  are  small  enough  to  see  the  tiny  speck 
in  our  brother's  eye,  but  not  big  enough 
to  discover  the  beam  in  our  own. 

We  are  limited  in  choosing  the  comforts 
and  delights  of  life  for  our  material  houses. 
163 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 

We  can  buy  only  as  we  have  means  to  pay. 
But  in  our  spiritual  houses  there  is  no 
limit  to  what  we  may  possess.  We  can 
have  what  we  choose.  And  our  choice  will 
depend  upon  the  attitude  we  take  to  the 
things  which  are  real  and  permanent.  A 
Wallachian  legend  represents  a  peasant, 
who  had  performed  some  good  deed  upon 
the  earth,  taken  to  heaven  for  his  reward. 
When  asked  what  he  would  have,  he  chose 
a  worn-out  bagpipe  which  had  been  thrown 
into  a  comer  of  the  heavenly  treasure- 
house.  With  this  he  came  back  to  the  earth. 
The  riches  of  the  Almighty  were  before 
him.  He  had  a  free  choice,  yet  he  was  con- 
tent with  a  broken  instrument  which  had 
lost  its  full  capacity  of  sound.  Thus  too 
often  we  make  our  choice  and  go  forth  con- 
tributing to  life  our  weak  and  wheezy 
melodies,  when  we  might  have  commanded 
an  angel  orchestra. 

There  is  a  further  suggestion  of  truth 
in  the  statement,  **  Every  man  went  into 
his  own  house. ' '    Unconsciously,  it  seems, 
164 


EVERY  MAN  TO  HIS  OWN  HOUSE. 

did  the  inspired  writer  force  into  these 
words  a  meaning  that  reaches  far  beyond 
its  intent.  The  men  who  went  each  his  own 
way  were  the  scribes  and  Pharisees  and 
officers  of  the  Sanhedrin ;  the  mechanics  and 
artisans  and  common  folk  of  the  great  city 
of  Jerusalem.  They  represent  the  classes 
into  which  all  humanity  falls.  Since  the 
day  of  Jesus  all  men  like  those  of  His  day 
are  divided  according  to  their  attitude  to 
Him. 

There  were  the  indifferent.  The  ques- 
tion, **Can  Christ  come  out  of  Galilee? *' 
was  a  mere  passing  remark,  with  no  par- 
ticular significance  for  them.  Like  the 
soldiers,  casting  lots  for  Jesus'  garments, 
and  indifferent  both  to  His  life  and  death, 
so  many  others  remained  in  a  state  of 
apathy  concerning  Him.  They  expressed 
tliemselves  neither  for  nor  against  Him. 
Others  there  were,  who,  at  the  Pharisees' 
bidding,  would  have  done  Him  bodily  harm. 
But  they  were  not  any  more  interested  in 
the  Pharisee's  cause.  They  took  the  same 
165 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 

attitude  a  bribed  voter  might  take  wbo 
cares  neither  for  the  interests  of  the  man 
who  buys  his  vote  nor  for  the  cause  of  good 
government.  There  are  those,  also,  who 
had  a  conviction  concerning  Jesus '  merits, 
but  who  nevertheless  remained  indifferent. 
These  said,  *  *  Of  a  truth  this  is  a  prophet. ' ' 
But  they  cared  little  for  the  words  of  His 
prophecy  or  the  example  of  His  precept. 
He  was  simply  a  rivulet  emptying  into  the 
stream  of  humanity,  and  no  more  to  be 
recognized  after  His  time  than  is  a  creek 
mingling  its  current  with  that  of  a  river. 

These  men,  who  were  indifferent  to 
Jesus,  cared  little  whether  He  was  a  man 
who  perverted  the  people  or  was  indeed 
the  Light  of  the  world.  Their  houses  were 
furnished  with  the  thoughts  they  carried 
there,  and  according  to  these  they  lived. 

Next  to  the  indifferent  class  stood  the 
actual  opposers  and  revilers  of  Jesus. 
They  were  headed  by  the  scribes  and 
Pharisees.  They  objected  to  Jesus'  teach- 
ing because  it  set  at  variance  their  privi- 
166 


EVEEY  MAN  TO  HIS  OWN  HOUSE. 

leges  and  prerogatives.  They  did  not  pro- 
pose to  be  disturbed  in  their  rights.  One 
recourse  was  open  to  them:  to  cause  Jesus' 
death.  This  they  were  ready  to  accomplish 
by  the  aid  of  false  witnesses.  They  were 
actually  at  work  trjdng  to  trump  up  evi- 
dence against  Him.  They  went  into  their 
houses,  when  the  talking  was  done,  carry- 
ing with  them  the  spirit  of  antipathy. 
Later  we  find  them  at  the  foot  of  Jesus' 
cross.  Their  hostility  was  so  great  that 
even  after  His  crucifixion  they  could  not 
rest  content,  but  went  to  feast  their  eyes  on 
His  torture  and  to  hurl  their  poisoned  epi- 
thets at  Him. 

Among  those  who  went  each  to  his  own 
house  were  also  the  earnestly  thoughtful. 
They  had  a  share  in  the  discussion  con- 
cerning Jesus.  There  were  the  officers  who 
had  been  sent  by  the  Pharisees  to  take 
Jesus,  and,  returning  empty-handed,  re- 
plied, ** Never  man  spoke  as  this  Man." 
There  was  Nicodemus,  the  Pharisee,  who, 
when  his  brother  Pharisees  would  have  con- 
167 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 

demned  Jesus  without  a  hearing,  asked, 
**Doth  our  law  judge  any  man  before  it 
hear  him  and  know  what  he  doethT' 
There  were  those  whom  He  had  mightily 
impressed,  and  who  said,  **When  Christ 
Cometh,  will  He  do  more  miracles  than 
these  which  this  Man  hath  done!"  There 
were  those,  also,  who  were  convinced  con- 
cerning Jesus'  identity  and  who  declared, 
**This  is  indeed  the  Christ."  The  ear- 
nestly thoughtful  were  quick  with  sym- 
pathy. They  listened  to  the  Christ  until 
they  understood  Him.  When  they  went 
down  to  their  own  houses  they  had  differ- 
ent feelings  and  thoughts.  Later  on  at  the 
cross  their  eyes  were  full  of  tears  and 
their  hearts  of  anguish.  They  saw  their 
friend  and  Savior  dying.  In  the  stillness 
of  His  death  their  sympathy  became  actual- 
ized in  service.  They  lifted  His  body  from 
the  cross  and  wrapped  it  in  linen  garments 
and  laid  it  with  the  spices  brought  by  Nico- 
demus,  the  believing  Pharisee. 

**Aiid  every  man  went  unto  his   own 
168 


EVERY  MAN  TO  HIS  OWN  HOUSE. 

house. ' '  He  carried  with  him  his  own  food 
for  thought.  The  food  was  mixed  with  in- 
difference or  with  hostility  or  with  a  will- 
ingness to  hear  and  understand.  Jesus' 
question,  **What  think  ye  of  the  Christ?" 
sounds  to-day  with  all  the  intonations  of 
the  centuries  behind  it.  Every  man  must 
take  this  question  into  the  recesses  of  his 
own  being.  As  he  goes  into  his  own  house 
he  must  choose  to  answer  it  either  in  the 
spirit  of  disinterestedness  or  of  disloyalty 
or  of  surrender  and  service. 


169 


XIV. 

THE  INCARNATION  OF  IDEAS. 

Thebe  has  always  been  an  interesting  dis- 
cussion as  to  whether  an  idea  has  any  re- 
ality. To  the  question,  ^*  Which  is  real, 
the  idea  of  a  machine  or  the  machine  it- 
self?'' the  answer  probably  would  be,  **The 
machine  is  real. ' '  For  there  it  stands ;  it 
is  in  operation;  we  marvel  at  the  work  it 
can  perform.  The  idea  of  the  machine, 
however,  can  not  be  seen.  It  has  no  ob- 
jective significance  for  the  beholder. 

If  we  should  push  the  inquiry  further, 
however,  and  ask,  **How  did  this  machine 
come  to  be?"  we  would  be  told  that  some 
man  invented  it.  This  would  be  an  admis- 
sion that  the  machine  did  not  come  into  ex- 
istence of  itself.  And  if  we  inquired  still 
further  we  should  learn  that  it  did  not 
come  into  existence  primarily  because  some 
170 


THE  INCARNATION  OF  IDEAS. 

man  or  a  number  of  men  made  it,  but  be- 
cause of  an  idea  which  originated  in  the 
brain  of  some  man.  So  back  of  the  ma- 
chine was  the  idea  of  the  machine.  The 
idea  was  real  before  the  machine  was 
actual. 

Now,  if  the  machine  is  real,  and  if  the 
idea  of  the  machine  as  it  existed  in  the 
mind  of  the  inventor  was  real,  what  is  the 
answer  to  the  question,  ^^  Which  is  the  more 
real,  the  idea  or  the  machine  f  This  is  no 
idle  question.  Men's  minds  have  become 
dizzy  as  they  have  given  it  thought.  Is  it 
perhaps  possible  that  the  objects  which 
we  see:  trees,  houses,  birds,  men,  are  not 
real  after  all,  but  that  only  the  ideas  of 
these  objects  have  reality?  For  instance, 
here  is  a  house.  It  bums  down  and  ceases 
to  exist.  The  idea  of  that  house,  however, 
still  remains.  All  the  burnt  and  ruined 
hills  and  levels  of  San  Francisco  are  not 
sufficient  to  blot  out  the  picture  of  the  city 
as  it  existed  before  the  morning  of  April 
18,1906. 

171 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 

We  know  a  man.  He  dies.  Our  idea  or 
impression  or  memory  of  that  man  still 
lives.  We  continue  to  know  Mm  as  he 
was  in  life.  Some  of  our  most  real  as  well 
as  tender  impressions  to-day  are  the  mem- 
ories of  those  we  laid  to  rest  years  and 
years  ago. 

Or  take  a  statue  or  a  picture  or  a  flower. 
It  presents  an  idea  of  beauty  that  pos- 
sesses our  soul.  When  the  statue  falls 
down  and  is  marred,  or  the  picture  fades 
and  becomes  dim,  or  the  flower  withers  and 
dies,  the  idea  of  its  beauty  endures  and  is 
still  real  to  us. 

Or  take  a  good  man  or  a  good  child.  The 
man  is  honest  and  sober,  the  child  is  at- 
tentive and  obedient.  Both  the  man  and 
the  child  give  us  an  idea  of  goodness  that 
is  appealing.  But  to-morrow  the  man  may 
be  incomprehensibly  guilty  of  some  wrong 
act,  and  the  child  may  fret  and  annoy  us 
beyond  endurance.  The  goodness  of  the 
individual  man  and  boy  is  gone,  but  the 
idea  of  goodness  remains.  For  we  should 
172 


THE  INCAENATION  OF  IDEAS. 

have  to  admit  that  the  goodness  of  yes- 
terday was  a  real  thing;  and  if  real  in 
them,  it  can  be  real  in  others.  Hence  the 
idea  of  goodness  would  have  universal 
reality. 

So  we  can  continue  with  other  illustra- 
tions. The  fact  which  underlies  this  line 
of  argument  has  led  philosophers  to  main- 
tain seriously  that  only  the  idea  is  real, 
all  else  is  copy  or  shadow.  The  idea  of 
man  remains,  the  individual  man  disap- 
pears ;  the  idea  of  beauty  remains,  beauty 
itself  is  destroyed;  the  idea  of  goodness 
remains,  goodness  itself  is  never  perfect. 
Therefore  that  which  remains  is  alone 
truly  real. 

Here  is  a  fact  we  can  not  dispute,  and 
the  more  we  contemplate  it  the  more  it 
possesses  us.  But  if  we  should  allow  this 
thought  to  dominate  our  thinking  as  it 
dominated  the  thinking  of  the  great  Greek 
philosopher  and  of  many  other  profound 
thinkers  since  his  day,  we  should  lose  our- 
selves in  the  clouds  as  they  did.  For  if 
173 


SPIEITUAL  VALUES. 

we  make  only  the  idea  of  beauty  real,  we 
shall  end  by  having  nothing  beautiful 
upon  the  earth.  Why  bother  about  having 
actual  beauty  when  this  would  be  unreal? 
If  we  make  only  the  idea  of  goodness  real, 
we  shall  have  no  goodness  upon  the  earth. 
Why  should  we  try  to  be  good,  when  try- 
ing to  be  good  would  be  unreal  and  we 
could  satisfy  ourselves  by  merely  thinking 
about  goodness.  If  we  make  the  idea  of 
God  alone  real,  we  shall  have  an  unreal 
God ;  hence  no  God  at  all  So  why  worship 
an  unreal  God  or  try  to  conform  our  lives 
to  his  commands.  For  even  worship  and 
obedience  would  be  unreal.  Only  the  ideas 
of  worship  and  obedience  could  have  any 
reality. 

The  fallacy  in  this  method  of  reasoning 
is  the  failure  to  recognize  that  life  is  some- 
thing more  than  mere  thinking.  It  com- 
prehends doing  as  well.  Our  thinking 
must  ever  be  related  to  our  doing.  Thought 
must  be  put  into  practice.  Otherwise  it 
is  nothing.  A  thought  or  an  idea  can  have 
174 


THE  INCAENATION  OF  IDEAS. 

reality  only  as  it  finds  expression  in  some 
personality.  We  can  have  a  thousand 
ideas  or  conceptions,  but  if  we  do  not  give 
them  shape  and  form  in  some  tangible  way, 
they  can  have  no  reality. 

Here,  for  example,  is  the  thought  of  a 
mother's  love.  This  is  only  an  idea.  We 
may  discuss  it,  grow  eloquent  over  it,  ex- 
haust the  possibilities  of  tongue  and  pen 
to  describe  it.  Yet  as  a  mere  idea  it  would 
mean  little  or  nothing  to  one  who  never 
realized  what  is  the  love  of  woman.  But 
let  the  idea  of  a  mother's  love  have  rela- 
tion to  the  personality  of  some  mother ;  let 
it  assume  visible  form;  let  it  become  in- 
carnated, a  mother  wearing  herself  out  at 
the  bedside  of  her  child,  or  battling  against 
the  flames  or  in  the  water,  giving  up  her 
own  life  for  that  of  her  child,  if  need  be, 
and  the  idea  of  a  mother's  love  assumes 
some  meaning,  it  becomes  real. 

Liberty  is  an  idea.  We  may  sing  songs 
to  it,  we  may  teach  it  and  preach  it,  and 
yet  it  will  not  mean  much,  only  as  an  idea. 
175 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 

But  let  a  nation  become  oppressed  or  en- 
chained, and  the  idea  of  liberty  assumes 
a  concrete  form.  It  becomes  flesh  and 
blood  in  every  man  and  woman  struggling 
for  freedom.  And  the  men  will  march  out 
and  stand  behind  their  guns  and  make  their 
ideas  speak  in  thunder  tones  and  the 
women  will  remain  at  home  and  mold  bul- 
lets and  weave  bandages  and  give  expres- 
sion to  their  ideas  in  every  step  they  take, 
in  every  word  they  utter,  in  every  look  that 
flashes  from  their  eyes. 

What  is  religion  but  the  ideas  of  good- 
ness and  purity  incarnated  in  men  and 
women  living  by  the  force  of  righteous 
convictions?  What  is  education  but  the 
ideas  of  truth  and  honesty  incarnated  in 
the  minds  and  souls  of  men  who  would  find 
the  true  and  the  real!  Temples  are  built 
and  books  are  published  and  pictures  are 
painted  to  give  expression  to  the  ideas 
which  have  become  incarnated  and  live  and 
move  and  have  their  being  in  the  head  and 
heart  of  some  personality. 
176 


THE  INCARNATION  OF  IDEAS. 

So  an  idea  is  real.  But  it  is  real  only 
as  it  has  relation  to  some  personality. 
And  that  personality  must  be  a  worthy 
representative  of  his  idea.  As  Emerson 
has  said,  **  Ideas  must  work  through  the 
brains  and  arms  of  good  and  brave  men,  or 
they  are  no  better  than  dreams."  Many 
are  the  examples  which  prove  this  truth. 
Rousseau,  the  great  champion  of  an  ideal 
education,  allowed  his  children  to  go  un- 
clothed and  unfed  as  paupers  and  beggars 
on  the  streets.  His  idea  of  education  was 
not  incarnated,  it  had  no  relation  to  a 
worthy  life.  He  is  only  a  type  of  the 
French  thinker  of  the  eighteenth  century, 
whose  high  and  lofty  ideas  had  no  vis- 
ible unfolding  in  flesh  and  blood.  They 
preached  a  **  gospel  of  human  perfecti- 
bility;" they  lived  a  life  of  brutal  immo- 
rality. Jesus  characterized  all  such  when 
He  told  the  Pharisees  that  their  life  of 
precept  had  no  counterpart  in  their  life 
of  example.  Their  ideas  took  form,  but  it 
was  the  form  of  dead  men's  bones  and  all 
177 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 

uncleanness.  Incarnation,  on  the  other 
hand,  means  life  and  purity.  Great  ideas 
become  real,  therefore,  in  great  souls. 

Heine  wrote  a  lyric  in  which  he  repre- 
sents an  ordinary  fellow — awkward,  list- 
less, irresolute — who  suddenly  is  changed 
into  a  spirited  and  noble  young  man  upon 
the  approach  of  his  lady  love.  This  is  an 
allegory,  in  which  the  poet  tries  to  show 
that  he  is  at  his  best  only  in  the  presence 
of  his  muse.  When  she  comes,  his  thoughts 
are  charged  with  life.  They  breathe  and 
speak.  So  commanding  men  of  all  ages 
have  declared  that  it  was  not  they,  but  an 
idea  flowing  through  them,  which  caused 
them  to  perform  their  almost  superhuman 
deeds. 

It  is  nature  ^s  way  to  wait  for  the  man 
who  is  ready  for  the  incarnation.  And 
then  the  Word  becomes  flesh.  Often  na- 
ture must  wait  a  long  time  for  the  coming 
of  such  a  man.  Ages  before  Luther  did 
men  believe  that  the  just  shall  live  by  faith 
and  that  man  may  speak  to  God  without 

178 


THE  INCARNATION  OF  IDEAS. 

the  mediation  of  a  priest.  But  not  nntil 
Luther  did  these  ideas  become  incarnated. 
Then,  facing  his  accusers  and  judges,  he 
said,  **Here  I  stand;  I  can  not  do  other- 
wise; so  help  me  God!''  Long  before  Lin- 
coln did  men  preach  that  all  men  should 
be  physically  free.  But  not  until  Lincoln 
came  did  this  idea  become  incarnated. 
Then,  facing  the  world,  he  said,  **A  house 
divided  against  itself  can  not  stand.  I  be- 
lieve this  Government  can  not  endure  half 
slave  and  half  free."  The  ideas  of  Luther 
and  Lincoln  were  the  realities  in  these 
great  movements ;  the  Protestant  Reforma- 
tion and  the  Emancipation  Proclamation 
were  only  the  incidents.  For  in  their  ideas 
the  thought  and  hope  of  the  ages  were 
crystallized  and  expressed.  The  Word  be- 
came flesh. 

Erasmus  tells  us  that  in  his  day  '*  there 
was  a  project  to  have  a  congress  of  kings 
to  enter  into  mutual  agreements  to  pre- 
serve peace  with  each  other  and  through 
Europe."  In  the  beginning  of  the  six- 
179 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 

teenth  century,  four  hundred  years  ago, 
the  idea  of  universal  peace  was  floating 
over  Europe,  and  yet  but  yesterday  we 
closed  one  of  the  most  sanguinary  wars  of 
history.  This  idea  has  not  yet  become  in- 
carnated. But  some  day  a  man  will  ap- 
pear who  will  gather  in  himself  the  hope 
and  expectation  of  the  centuries,  and  then 
nations  will  learn  to  war  no  more. 

So  we  come  to  the  real  meaning  of  the 
truth,  **The  Word  became  flesh."  "When- 
ever we  speak  of  God  we  intuitively  asso- 
ciate with  Him  certain  ideas.  We  say  God 
is  good,  God  is  just,  God  is  love.  So  we 
speak  of  the  ideas  of  goodness,  of  justice, 
and  of  righteousnes.  Probably  the  first  of 
these  ideas,  that  of  goodness,  predominates 
in  our  minds.  It  is  in  fact  inclusive  of  all 
the  others.  As  goodness  is  an  idea  with 
us,  so  it  is  an  idea  with  God.  It  is  con- 
ceivable that  God  could  entertain  this  idea 
as  any  one  of  us  could  entertain  an  idea, 
keeping  it  entirely  to  ourselves,  turning 
it  over  in  our  minds  and  finding  in  it  in- 
180 


THE  INCARNATION  OF  IDEAS. 

finite  enjoyment.  It  is  not  our  nature,  how- 
ever, to  keep  anything  good  or  great  to 
ourselves,  unless  there  be  a  selfish  motive 
back  of  it  and  we  desire  to  reap  some  ma- 
terial gain  therefrom.  And  even  then,  to 
attain  our  ends,  we  must  impart  our  idea 
to  others.  So  it  is  not  in  the  nature  of 
God  to  keep  His  goodness  to  Himself,  nor 
could  He  do  so  if  the  idea  of  goodness  were 
to  have  any  meaning  for  us.  God's  idea 
of  goodness,  therefore,  must  become  in- 
carnated. It  can  exist  only  in  relation  to 
some  personality.  And  that  personality 
must  be  a  most  worthy  representative  of 
goodness. 

As  we  cast  our  eye  over  the  events  of 
Old  Testament  history  we  find  that  God's 
goodness  always  has  relation  to  some  per- 
sonality. Enoch  walked  with  God,  and  he 
was  not,  for  God  took  him.  Abraham 
trusted  God,  and  his  faith  was  counted  for 
righteousness.  Elijah  spoke  with  the  Al- 
mighty, and  was  taken  to  heaven  in  a  flame 
of  fire.  These  narrations  and  many  others 
181 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 

are  the  attempts  of  the  early  Hebrew 
writers  to  show  how  God's  goodness  be- 
came flesh  and  blood  in  some  personality, 
and  in  this  way,  although  imperfectly,  re- 
vealed God  to  man.  If  God  was  working 
in  and  through  man  after  this  manner,  and 
as  he  is  the  supreme  type  of  perfection,  it 
was  inevitable  that  there  must  come  a  mo- 
ment when  God  would  reveal  Himself  in 
the  ideal  incarnation.  This  moment  burst 
with  all  its  fullness  upon  an  expectant 
world.  The  Word  became  flesh,  and  Jesus 
Christ  walked  the  valleys  and  hills  of  Pal- 
estine the  embodiment  of  goodness,  purity, 
and  truth. 

As  we  contemplate  this  thought  of  God 
entering  the  human  race  in  the  person  of 
Jesus  Christ,  we  must  not  forget  that, 
while  the  incarnation  to  us  is  an  event  in 
time,  with  God  it  was  an  eternal  idea.  The 
ancient  Hebrews  had  many  a  f  oregleam  of 
this  idea  becoming  a  fact.  They  were  con- 
vinced that  God  must  come  to  the  earth  in 
visible  form.  So  they  represented  Him  as 
182 


THE  INCAENATION  OF  IDEAS. 

living  in  a  tabernacle  where  His  name 
dwelt.  Or  they  represented  Him  as  the 
Shekinah,  the  symbol  of  the  Divine  Pres- 
ence, which  rested  in  the  shape  of  a  cloud 
or  a  visible  light  over  the  mercy  seat.  This 
was  God's  glory  dwelling  in  a  tabernacle. 
The  writer  of  John 's  Gospel  nses  this  same 
imagery.  **The  Word  became  flesh''  in 
Jesus  Christ  and  "tabernacled  among  us, 
and  we  beheld  His  glory,  the  glory  of  the 
only  begotten  of  the  Father,  full  of  grace 
and  truth."  God  in  the  Old  Testament  is 
unseen;  He  dwells  in  a  tabernacle;  His 
glory  shines  round  about.  God  in  the  New 
Testament  is  seen;  He  tabernacles  with 
men,  and  in  Him  they  behold  God's  glory. 
So  Paul  declares  that,  although  **no  man 
had  ever  seen  God,"  yet  **the  only  begot- 
ten Son  hath  made  Him  known." 

We  must  also  remember  that  the  Incar- 
nation was  God's  idea,  or  word,  coming 
into  the  world  in  the  form  of  a  man.  God 
was  already  in  the  world.  His  Spirit  was 
all-pervading.  He  must  give  His  idea 
183 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 

form  in  the  personality  of  a  man.  And 
not  of  a  man  who  must,  but  who  might  do 
His  will.  Jesus,  therefore,  came  into  the 
world  a  man  in  all  points  as  we  are,  except 
without  sin.  And  He  was  without  sin,  not 
because  it  was  made  impossible  for  Him  to 
sin,  but  simply  because  He  chose  to  remain 
pure.  If  He  could  not  sin,  then  His  temp- 
tation has  no  significance,  for  only  one  who 
can  sin  can  be  tempted.  He  was  free  to 
disobey  God  as  we  are.  He  willed  to  do 
God's  will.  This  was  the  incomprehensible 
miracle  which  puzzled  His  disciples  as 
much,  if  not  more,  than  it  puzzles  us. 
That  He,  the  Son  of  God,  should  also 
choose  to  be  the  Son  of  man,  coming  into 
and  remaining  upon  the  earth  to  suffer  its 
temptations  and  trials,  was  to  them  the 
deepest  mystery.  They  saw  the  grandeur, 
however,  and  the  overpowering  nobility  of 
Jesus'  sacrifice.  Paul,  overcome  by  the  un- 
selfishness of  such  a  love,  gives  it  expres- 
sion in  the  words,  Behold  the  Christ,  *  *  who, 
though  He  was  rich,  yet  for  your  sakes  be- 
184 


THE  INCARNATION  OF  IDEAS. 

came  poor,  that  ye  through  His  poverty 
might  become  rich.'* 

From  the  divine  and  from  the  human 
side,  therefore,  the  Incarnation  was  ideal. 
It  was  all  that  God  and  Christ  could  do. 
It  was  all  that  needed  to  be  done.  Like  a 
mighty  bridge  which  stretches  high  above 
an  angry  current  permits  a  man  to  cross 
from  one  side  to  the  other,  so  the  Incarna- 
tion spans  this  sinful  world.  With  the  aid 
of  Jesus  Christ  man  comes  to  God.  The 
New  Testament  never  allows  us  to  forget 
this  fact.  God  was  in  Christ  reconciling  the 
world  unto  Himself.  Because  ye  are  sons, 
God  sent  forth  the  Spirit  of  His  Son  into 
your  hearts,  crying,  Abba,  Father,  who 
was  the  brightness  of  God's  glory,  the  ex- 
press image  of  His  person,  the  Word  be- 
come flesh  which  tabernacled  among  us  full 
of  grace  and  truth.  Eternal  love  and  eter- 
nal life  became  flesh  in  Jesus  Christ. 

What  is  the  significance  to  us  personally 
of  this  great  truth?  It  means  that  God  is 
an  eternal  possibility  of  incarnation,  and 
185 


SPIEITUAL  VALUES. 

that  man  has  a  permanent  capability  of  in- 
carnation. What  God's  intention  was  for 
Jesus  Christ  it  is  for  the  whole  race.  God 
is  forever  on  the  side  of  man,  and  earnestly 
desires  that  he  be  saved.  Hence  God's 
word  will  become  flesh  in  man  if  he  in- 
tend that  it  shall.  Through  Jesus  of  Naza- 
reth He  calls  him  to  be  worthy,  so  that 
goodness  and  purity  and  truth  can  flow  in 
him  and  find  expression. 


186 


XV. 

THE  TOUCH  OF  FAITH. 

To  womanhood  Jesus  paid  His  noblest 
tributes.  The  Grospel  narrative  would  be 
devoid  of  many  a  beautiful  passage  and 
bereft  of  some  of  its  most  inciting  and  ir- 
resistible truths  had  it  not  been  for  the 
occasions  women  offered  Jesus  for  preach- 
ing His  sermons.  The  story  of  the  woman 
who  spent  all  her  substance  for  healing  is 
full  of  suggestion. 

She  shows  us  that  Jesus  never  was  so 
busily  engaged  that  He  could  not  stop  to 
help  in  case  of  need.  She  was  healed  by 
Him  as  He  was  going  to  the  house  of 
Jairus,  whose  little  girl  lay  at  the  point 
of  death.  The  emergency  was  a  great  one ; 
the  father  feared  the  Master  would  not 
come  in  time ;  Jesus  was  hurrying  to  reach 
the  sick-room.  And  yet,  as  He  feels  that 
187 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 

tug  at  His  garments  He  knows  there  is  an- 
other helpless  sonl  imploring  His  aid,  and, 
seemingly  forgetful  about  the  dying  child. 
He  stays  His  steps  to  give  the  relief 
sought. 

This  woman  shows  us  also  that  real  faith 
grows  out  of  a  sense  of  need.  She  had  been 
ailing  twelve  years,  had  suffered  much  of 
many  physicians,  had  spent  all  her  money, 
yet  had  not  become  better,  but  rather 
worse.  Sick  and  poor  and  friendless,  this 
was  her  condition.  But  as  soon  as  she 
heard  of  Jesus  she  came  to  Him.  He  had 
helped  others.  He  could  help  her. 

We  shall  make  a  mistake  if  we  attribute 
this  act  to  the  despair  of  a  woman  who  had 
lost  all  and  who  could  well  afford  another 
venture.  Great  trial  and  sorrow  often 
drive  one  from  God  rather  than  to  Him, 
and  despair  never  leads  up  the  heights. 
After  every  great  disaster,  when  homes  are 
made  desolate,  the  tide  of  men's  feelings 
runs  like  a  mill-race,  with  all  the  power  of 
gravity  tugging  at  it  down  into  the  depths 
188 


THE  TOUCH  OF  FAITH. 

of  despair.  Only  the  anchor  of  faith  will 
hold  against  the  counter-streams  of  sorrow 
and  distress.  Sailors  know  they  will  have 
need  of  an  anchor,  and  so  they  prepare 
for  the  emergency.  Out  of  this  same  sense 
of  need  grows  real  faith,  which  like  an  an- 
chor steadies  men  on  the  sea  of  life  and 
holds  them  from  the  currents  that  run  on 
the  rocks  or  into  the  whirlpool. 

As  this  woman  had  real  faith,  she  shows 
us  further  that  nothing  can  hinder  such  a 
faith.  It  was  a  mountain-moving  faith,  the 
kind  of  faith  Jesus  tried  to  instill  into 
His  disciples.  There  was  the  mountain  of 
social  ostracism.  The  Mosaic  law  ban- 
ished such  as  she  beyond  the  usual  walks 
of  life.  The  sticklers  for  that  law  would 
have  been  only  too  quick  to  stone  or  other- 
wise punish  her.  But  her  faith  told  her 
such  a  law  could  not  be  just ;  that  He  who 
would  violate  a  similar  law  to  cure  on  the 
Sabbath  day  would  also  set  this  one  aside. 
So  with  the  words  trembling  upon  her  lips, 
**If  I  can  but  touch  His  garments, ''  she 
189 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 

walked  right  aver  tlie  towering  height  of 
her  ostracism. 

There  was  the  mountain,  also,  of  friend- 
lessness.  She  was  now  a  pauper.  Poverty 
added  to  ostracism  heaves  up  a  mighty 
barrier.  Such  a  barrier  hung  over  this 
unfortunate  woman  wherever  she  walked, 
threatening  to  fall  upon  and  crush  her. 
But  she  lifted  this  mountain  and  flung  it 
into  the  sea  when  she  heard  of  Jesus.  For 
she  said  within  herself,  **If  I  can  but  touch 
His  garments,  I  shall  be  healed.'*  Health 
was  more  than  riches. 

Immediately,  however,  another  mountain 
rose  before  her,  higher  and  more  impass- 
able than  the  other  two.  It  was  the  moun- 
tain the  multitude  about  Jesus  formed,  and 
which  made  approach  to  Him  by  such  a 
weak  and  frail  woman  almost  impossible. 
Let  us  understand  what  this  mass  of  hu- 
manity was.  Matthew  says  the  people 
were  literally  storming  Jesus,  Mark  de- 
clares they  were  knocking  and  pushing 
against  Him,  Luke  tells  us  it  was  suffocat- 
190 


THE  TOUCH  OF  FAITH. 

ing  to  be  in  that  crowd.  The  disciples, 
when  Jesus  turned  and  asked,  *'Who 
touched  My  garments ?"  rebuked  their 
Master  and  said,  **Thou  seest  the  multi- 
tude thronging  Thee,  and  sayest  Thou, 
Who  touched  MeT'  It  was  preposterous 
in  their  eyes  for  Jesus  to  think  He  could 
tell  the  individual  touch  of  any  one  in  that 
crowd. 

Imagine,  therefore,  this  woman,  dis- 
turbed in  mind  as  well  as  weakened  in 
body,  throwing  herself  into  that  turbulent 
and  jostling  crowd.  Consider  the  tram- 
pling of  feet,  the  shouting  of  voices,  the 
dust  coming  up  into  her  face,  the  sun  beat- 
ing down  on  her  head ;  look  at  her  fearing 
and  trembling  lest  her  condition  be  dis- 
covered and  she  be  immediately  pounced 
upon  by  the  unfeeling  crowd.  And  yet,  see 
her  pushing  onward  with  superhuman 
strength — superhuman  because  she  had 
faith — ^now  thrown  to  one  side,  now  to  the 
other,  now  backward,  now  effectually 
stopped  by  the  wall  of  human  flesh,  but 
191 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 

still  struggling  onward,  her  hands  out- 
stretched, her  lips  muttering  that  one  re- 
frain of  hope  and  joy,  **If  I  but  touch  His 
garments  I  shall  be  made  whole.''  And 
then  see  the  mountain  of  humanity  roll 
away  before  her  as  she  comes  to  her 
Savior. 

From  this  incident  we  learn  further  that 
real  blessing  comes  only  as  we  openly  ac- 
knowledge the  benefit  received.  "When  she 
touched  Jesus'  garments  and  experienced 
the  unutterable  joy  of  relief  she  fell  back 
to  go  unnoticed  as  she  came.  Already  was 
she  beginning  to  lose  herself  in  that  crowd. 
But  the  moment  Jesus  asked,  *'Who 
touched  My  garments?"  she  stopped,  and 
when  she  saw  that  Jesus  could  not  be  put 
off  with  the  assurance  that  no  one  in  par- 
ticular had  touched  Him,  she  came  trem- 
blingly and  with  fear  to  confess  what  she 
had  done. 

To   give   her   this   opportunity,   Jesus. 
framed  His  question.    He  was  not  asking 
for  information,  no  more  than  He  was 
192 


THE  TOUCH  OF  FAITH. 

when,  after  the  disciples  had  been  disput- 
ing who  was  to  be  the  greatest  among  them, 
He  asked,  **What  was  it  that  ye  disputed 
by  the  way?"  or  when  walking  with  those 
other  disciples  on  the  way  to  Emmaus  He 
said,  **What  manner  of  communications 
are  these  which  ye  have,  and  why  are  ye 
sadr'  For  the  sole  purpose  of  giving  this 
woman  an  opportunity  to  make  humble  and 
open  and  full  confession  of  her  faith  did 
Jesus  ask  that  question,  **  Who  touched  My 
garments  r* 

It  would  have  been  but  a  barren  blessing 
to  her  had  she  gone  away  in  silence.  On 
the  other  hand,  it  was  never  a  matter  of 
indifference  to  Jesus  whether  or  not  those 
whom  He  helped  acknowledged  His  service. 
On  one  occasion  He  sent  ten  lepers  who 
came  to  Him  for  healing  on  an  errand  to 
test  their  faith,  and  as  they  went  they  were 
cleansed.  But  only  one  returned  to  give 
thanks  and  glorify  God.  And  Jesus,  look- 
ing upon  him,  said,  **Were  there  not  ten 
cleansed,  but  where  are  the  nine?"  They 
^«  193 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 

had  gone  off  benefited,  but  not  blessed.  To 
the  one  alone  Jesus  said,  **  Arise,  go  thy 
way ;  thy  faith  hath  made  thee  whole. ' '  So 
to  this  woman,  when  she  fell  before  Him  to 
confess.  He  said,  **  Daughter,  thy  faith 
hath  made  thee  whole;  go  in  peace." 
Then,  and  only  then,  could  she  leave  Him 
with  the  happiness  and  peace  of  a  newly 
found  life.  The  sustenance  and  healing  we 
receive  every  day  from  God  are  benefits; 
they  do  not  become  blessings  until  we  re- 
turn thanks  to  Him  and  receive  His  bene- 
diction. 

But  we  have  not  exhausted  the  truth  this 
woman  teaches  us.  There  were  hundreds 
of  men  and  women  touching  Jesus  as  they 
thronged  Him;  there  was  only  one  touch 
that  He  felt.  That  touch  was  *Hhe  touch 
of  faith."  From  the  day  when  multitudes 
gathered  to  hear  the  great  Teacher  the 
world  has  been  touching  Jesus'  garments. 
How  close  the  contact  has  been  we  little 
consider  as  we  move  along  our  daily  path. 
But  take  that  figure  out  of  pur  life,  and  the 
194 


THE  TOUCH  OF  FAITH. 

world  will  become  as  barren  and  desolate 
as  are  the  hills  and  valleys  of  His  native 
land  from  which  He  was  driven. 

This  is  no  mere  figure  of  speech.  Civili- 
zation, with  Christ  at  its  head,  has  gone 
marching  on.  Its  one  impetus  has  been  the 
possibility  and  privilege  of  touching  Him. 

Were  there  no  power  to  draw  men  to- 
gether so  that  human  prejudice  and  hatred, 
human  love  and  patience,  could  find  ex- 
pression and  the  lessons  of  common  expe- 
rience be  taught,  there  would  be  little  in- 
centive for  living.  It  would  be  just  as  well 
under  such  circumstances  for  men  to  hide 
themselves  in  caves  and  jungles  and  eke 
out  their  solitary  existence  until  life  should 
ebb  away.  There  is  this  power,  however, 
and  as  men  touch  each  other  there  comes 
the  spur  to  life.  But  if  there  were  not 
some  high  ideal  and  worthy  motive  by 
which  men  are  drawn  together,  the  contact 
and  communion  of  life  would  be  but  little 
better  than  an  idle  game.  This  incentive 
and  this  motive  converge  in  the  Christ. 
195 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 

Men  have  eagerly  run  to  Him  and  are 
thronging  Him  to-day  as  much  as  they 
thronged  Him  nineteen  hundred  years  ago. 

In  this  crowd  we  find  the  philosopher  and 
theologian,  the  artist  and  the  man  of  let- 
ters. They  have  heard  that  a  virtue  pro- 
ceeds from  Jesus.  The  record  of  past  his- 
tory is  not  to  be  discredited.  For  nineteen 
centuries  there  has  been  only  one  Figure 
who  was  great  and  powerful  enough  to  at- 
tract and  hold  the  interest  and  thought  of 
men.  So  we  find  men  who  represent  the 
intellectual  and  spiritual  and  aesthetic  side 
of  mankind  in  the  multitudes  which  have 
touched  Jesus.  But  they  have  too  often 
typified  the  merely  curious  or  indifferent 
or  sneering  or  criticising  element  in  every 
crowd.  They  brushed  the  very  garments 
of  Jesus,  but  He  did  not  ask,  '^Who 
touched  Me?''  For  He  felt  none  of  them 
touching  Him. 

So  in  Church  and  State,  in  school  and 
home,  Jesus  bias  been  the  one  great  center 
of  attraction.  Ecclesiastics  and  statesmen, 
196 


THE  TOUCH  OF  FAITH. 

teachers  and  parents,  have  been  thronging 
Him  to  draw  upon  the  institutions  they 
represent  His  virtue.  Here  He  has  stood, 
and  a  crown  has  been  offered  Him.  But 
this  crown  has  too  often  been  the  very  one 
Jesus  in  His  lifetime  refused.  It  was  not 
offered  with  an  intelligent  understanding 
of  what  His  true  mission  was.  These  lead- 
ers would  have  crowned  Him  externally, 
so  that  He  might  give  dignity  and  power 
to  the  provinces  over  which  they  presided, 
when  He  asked  only  that  they  receive  Him 
into  their  lives  and  encourage  others  to  do 
likewise.  They  pushed  and  tugged  as  they 
touched  Him,  but  He  asked  not,  **Who 
touched  Me?"  For  theirs  was  not  the 
touch  of  faith. 

So  individual  men  and  women  have  been 
storming  Jesus  throughout  the  ages.  They 
have  touched  Him  as  they  have  come  in 
contact  with  godly  men  and  women,  whose 
influence  is  a  divine  blessing  and  from 
whose  lives  the  Christ  spirit  proceeds. 
But  their  lives  have  not  had  an  impetus  up- 
197 


SPIEITUAL  VALUES. 

ward.  For  as  they  looked  upon  these  per- 
sons they  have  always  found  the  frailties 
which  make  men  and  women  too  truly 
human.  They  have  been  quick  to  take  an 
inventory  of  human  mistakes  and  short- 
comings rather  than  to  make  an  investment 
of  earnest  and  righteous  effort.  They  have 
hidden  the  talent  that  was  given  them,  for 
they  said,  **The  Master  is  a  hard  one,  He 
will  take  account  of  every  weakness  that 
besets  us  and  every  failure  we  make.  So 
why  try  to  increase  our  talent.'^  The 
riches  of  the  Kingdom  were  in  reach  of 
their  grasp,  but  they  did  not  stretch  out 
the  hand  of  faith,  and  Jesus  did  not  know 
they  touched  Him. 

So  have  men  touched  the  Master  as  they 
have  read  the  literary  treasures  of  past 
and  present  ages.  A  man  of  learning 
wrote  a  chapter  entitled,  **The  Lost 
Bible.''  He  pictured  a  morning  when  men 
discovered  that  the  Bible  had  been  taken 
out  of  the  world.  Not  only  was  the  Sacred 
Book  gone,  but  also  every  passage  in  every 
198 


THE  TOUCH  OF  FAITH. 

other  book  whicli  had  been  inspired  by 
the  one  Book.  As  they  took  up  the  volumes 
which  had  molded  civilization  in  estab- 
lished forms  of  righteousness,  they  found 
that  these  books  had  blank  spaces  on  al- 
most every  page,  that  the  thread  of  the  nar- 
rative was  broken.  There  was  little  mean- 
ing in  what  remained.  The  power  that  had 
inspired  the  book  had  been  withdrawn.  So 
they  cried  in  distress,  **Give  us  back  our 
Bible.'' 

It  would  be  too  elementary  to  discuss  the 
influence  the  Bible  has  had  upon  literature. 
Suffice  it  to  say  that  the  reading  multitude 
must  throng  the  Master  on  every  literary 
avenue  and  highway.  They  can  not  help 
but  touch  Him  here  if  they  read  anything 
worthy,  for  His  Spirit  is  all  pervasive.  If 
they  do  not  hear  Him  say,  **Who  touched 
My  garments?''  they  may  know  they  have 
not  touched  Him  in  faith. 

Then  in  established  religion  itself  the 
multitudes  throng  the  Master.  On  the 
great  roads  worn  smooth  and  hard  by  nine- 
199 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 

teen  hundred  years '  tramping  of  Christian 
travelers,  how  truly  can  it  be  said,  **The 
whole  multitude  presses  upon  Him  to 
touch  Him,  for  they  know  that  virtue  goeth 
out  of  Him."  And  yet,  how  many  indi- 
vidual communicants  are  there  who  hear 
Jesus  say,  **Who  touched  My  garments?" 

Men  get  into  the  habit  of  going  to  church 
just  as  they  acquire  other  habits.  While 
this  is  a  habit  always  to  be  encouraged,  it 
is  not  one  of  unmixed  good  for  the  indi- 
vidual so  habituated.  For  he  may  get  no 
nearer  to  the  spirit  of  the  Master  than  did 
those  men  who  were  brushing  the  very  gar- 
ments of  Jesus  on  that  Galilean  road. 

Some  men  go  to  church  merely  to  see 
what  is  going  on.  They  listen  to  the  music 
and  the  prayers  and  the  sermon,  and  go 
through  all  the  outward  motions  of  wor- 
ship, but  they  never  get  into  the  spirit  of 
the  service.  These  are  they  who  followed 
Jesus  curiously,  to  hear  what  He  might 
say  or  see  what  He  might  do ;  who  touched 
His  very  garments,  but  who  were  not  ar- 
200 


THE  TOUCH  OF  FAITH. 

rested  by  the  question,  **Who  took  hold 
of  Mer' 

Other  men  get  into  the  habit  of  going  to 
church  in  a  hypercritical  or  tentative  atti- 
tude. They  are  the  self -constituted  judges 
of  what  ought  to  take  place  in  Church. 
They  are  experts  on  the  form  of  worship, 
understand  how  much  or  how  little  of 
ritual  should  be  used,  take  in  at  once  what 
is  wrong  with  the  ushering  or  the  singing 
or  the  serving  of  tables  generally.  They 
soon  become  professional  sermon  tasters, 
as  there  are  professional  tasters  of  tea  and 
of  other  commodities,  whose  business  is 
to  do  with  the  selling  value  rather  than  the 
nourishing  qualities  thereof.  They  are  apt 
to  judge  the  whole  by  a  very  little  part, 
and  are  in  a  danger  they  do  not  realize, 
the  danger  that  besets  all  professional 
tasters,  whose  sense  of  taste  after  a  period 
of  years  begins  to  deceive  them,  so  that 
everything  tastes  the  same. 

Such  critics  of  all  that  goes  on  in  ChurcH 
are  like  those  who  thronged  the  Master,  to 
201 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 

see  whether  He  would  violate  the  law  or 
to  ask  Him  questions  in  order  to  entrap 
Him.  Jesus  never  stopped  one  of  them 
with  His  question,  **Who  touched  MeT' 
for  He  never  felt  them  tugging  at  His 
garments. 

Then  there  are  those  who  go  to  church 
because  they  feel  they  ought  to.  The  train- 
ing they  have  received,  the  profession  they 
make,  the  position  in  life  they  take,  force 
upon  them  a  certain  obligation  to  attend 
church.  But  during  the  service  they  are 
easily  distracted,  their  minds  wander,  like 
water  running  down  hill,  to  their  engage- 
ments of  the  past  week  and  to  the  plans 
for  the  future;  they  are  casting  mental 
balances  of  their  business  ventures;  they 
are  considering  what  they  are  going  to 
get  out  of  life,  whether  it  be  a  financial 
gain  or  a  social  prominence  or  a  satisfac- 
tion for  mental  efforts  expended.  These 
are  real  disciples  of  the  Master.  They  rep- 
resent the  human  bundles  of  weakness  who 
followed  Him  closely,  but  whose  minds 
202 


THE  TOUCH  OF  FAITH. 

were  continually  wandering  from  their 
service  of  Him  to  their  own  worldly  pros- 
pects; who  were  saying  to  Him,  **  Master, 
we  have  left  all  and  followed  Thee;  what 
shall  we  have  therefore  ! ' '  who  argued  with 
considerable  heat  who  was  going  to  be 
greatest  in  His  Kingdom. 

And  yet  such  as  these  were  the  only  ma- 
terial Jesus  had  with  which  to  build  up  His 
Kingdom.  They  were  the  only  ones  He 
could  send  to  preach  His  gospel  and  carry 
on  His  work;  He  lost  none  of  them,  we 
read,  except  the  son  of  perdition,  even 
although  at  times  they  left  Him.  But  how 
often  was  He  grieved  in  His  soul  because 
of  their  weakness  and  listlessness !  How 
patient  He  had  to  be  with  them !  how  gen- 
tle, in  order  to  bring  out  their  true  selves  I 
"With  them  Jesus  built  a  structure  of  un- 
shakable foundation,  yet  we  can  not  help 
but  feel  how  much  more  successful  He 
would  have  been  could  He  have  counted 
confidently  on  the  unreserved  service  and 
following  of  His  disciples  I  And  to-day, 
203 


SPIRITUAL  VALUES. 

how  much  grander  and  more  noble  would 
life  be  if  all  who  call  upon  His  name  would 
do  so  in  absolute  surrender  and  consecra- 
tion to  His  service! 

**  Touching  Me  every  day,  and  yet  at 
arm's  length  from  Me."  This  was  the 
comment  of  Jesus  upon  His  followers. 
Thronging  Him  everywhere,  and  yet  sepa- 
rate from  Him.  This  is  the  verdict  of  his- 
tory upon  those  whose  surroundings  have 
been  most  benefited  by  Him.  They  have 
touched  Him,  but  not  with  the  touch  of 
faith,  and  He  has  not  stopped  to  bless 
them. 

Many  there  were  in  crowds  about  Jesus 
who  never  came  in  contact  with  Him. 
Others  there  were  who  were  not  of  His 
immediate  following,  but  who,  when  they 
heard  of  Him,  came  to  Him  with  the  touch 
of  faith.  No  wonder,  therefore,  that  Jesus 
marveled  and  said,  **I  have  not  found  such 
faith,  no,  not  even  in  Israel. ' '  No  wonder, 
also,  that  He  added,  **  Verily  I  say  unto 
you,  Many  shall  come  from  the  east  and 
204 


THE  TOUCH  OF  FAITH. 

from  the  west  who  have  no  inherited  right 
to  the  Kingdom,  but  they  shall  sit  down 
with  Abraham  and  Isaac  and  Jacob,  while 
the  children  of  the  Kingdom  will  not  be 
permitted  to  enter.  For  behold,  there  are 
last  which  shall  be  first,  and  first  which 
shall  be  last.'' 


205 


j,^  INITIAL  r"^,  «riS 

OP   ASSESSED   FOR   P^^^^^^^HE  PENALTY 

DAY     AND    TO    $t.O" 
OVERDUE. 


